Lamb Post-Mortem Protocol for Use on Farm: To Diagnose Primary Cause of Lamb Death from Birth to 3 Days of Age

摘要

Lamb survival is a key issue for sheep farming operations. The majority of lamb deaths from birth to weaningoccur in the first 3 days after birth and range from 5% to 30% for individual sheep flocks. A simplified lamb post-mortemexamination (PM) protocol has been developed for use on farm to determine the primary cause of lamb death betweenbirth and 3 days of age. Firstly lamb viability at birth (LDVB) is determined and secondly the lamb death risk beingdystocia (LDD), starvation and exposure (LDSE) or other (LDOTHER) is diagnosed. A trained lamb post-mortem practitioneris expected to take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete a post-mortem examination for one lamb using the protocoland decision tool described. The PM protocol is required for large scale use for AgResearch’s gene marker discoveryprogramme. Breeders involved in the Ovita Lamb Survival study are trained to use the post-mortem protocol and can accessbreeding values for the lamb mortality traits derived from PM: that is lamb viability at birth (LDVB), lamb death riskdue to dystocia (LDD) and lamb death risk due to starvation/exposure (LDSE).