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The Relationship Between Change And Body Reserves Essay

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The relationship between change in live weight and change in body reserves.

Change in live weight of a ewe is reflected in changes in body reserves. A negative change in live weight, i.e. a decrease in body weight, can occur postpartum, in the first stage of lactation. When a ewe starts her lactation period, there is a huge shift in different energy requirements (Nicol and Brookes, 2007). This shift is the onset of losing weight, since there is more energy required to maintain the lamb(s), than there is energy intake. Due to a change in body reserves, especially in adipose tissue mobilization, there is a change in live weight of the ewes (Keenan et al. 1969; Cowan et al. 1979; Burton et al. 1974). Change in live weight does induce change in body reserves, which is reflected in a change in the body condition score (Burgel et al. 2011). Ewes with low condition score at breeding have been reported to have higher chance of abortion in the embryonic phase of pregnancy (West et al., 1989). For body reserves, adipose tissue will be the first to deplete when the ewe is not in a position to maintain her live weight (Keenan et al. 1969; Burton et al. 1974). Changes in metabolism of ewes affect the body composition for adipose tissue, underfed animals will have lower fat reserves than animals fed at maintenance level or overfed animals (Chilliard et al. 2008). Body weight losses during pregnancy, regardless of the feed intake, is on average greater for heavier ewes than for lighter

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