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Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different feeding schedules on the ingestive behavior, dry matter (DM) intake, neutral detergent fiber intake (NDF), respiratory rate (RR) and rectal temperature (RT) of Santa Ines sheep, in feedlot in hot and humid climate region. Five non-castrated male sheep with an initial average weight of 27 +/- 3 kg were distributed in a 5x5 Latin Square experimental design. Feed was offered twice daily, the first meal at 7:00h for all treatments, and the second meal, was offered at: 13:30h, 15:00h, 16:30h, 18:00h, or 19:30h. The RR and RT were measured thrice (morning, afternoon and evening) in a day. The feeding behavior (time of eating, rumination and idleness) was recorded in minutes for period of 24 hours visually. The environmental conditions (air temperature and humidity) was measured to determine the thermal comfort index, THI (Temperature-Humidity Index), which ranged between 72 and 83. There was no evidence that different afternoon feeding times affected rectal temperature during the morning (38.9 degrees C), afternoon (39.0 degrees C) or evening (39.0 degrees C). The respiratory rate during the afternoon was higher for animals fed at 15: 00h (55.2 mov.min(-1)) than for animals fed at 18:00h or 19:30h (29.6 and 31.6 mov.min(-1), respectively).

Keywords

Animal handling; Comfort index; Feeding behavior

Published in

Bioscience journal
2015, volume: 31, number: 4, pages: 1164-1173

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Animal and Dairy Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.14393/BJ-v31n4a2015-26154

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/141327