<b>Scrotal perimeter and age of puberty in Australian Merino Sheep, submitted to different alimentary strategies</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascianimsci.v27i4.1179

Abstract

The hypothesis that animals well fed during the fetal life and in the post parturition would present better reproductive performance than those with restricted feeding, during the fetal life and/or in the post parturition was experimented pointing out that younger animals reach puberty first. One hundred and twenty pregnant Australian Merino sheep were used on the 60th day of gestation, distributed in a 2x2 factorial, with four nutritional levels, half of groups being were inverted. Birth weights were recorded. The females were eliminated and the males were identified by using earrings of different colors (orange, purple, black and green) distributed among the treatments. Body score maintained the same relations that were observed on body weight. Animals with black earring presented smaller scrotal perimeter on the 132nd day, with larger scrotal growth, due to the nutritional improvement of those animals on specific periods. As a condition of corporal score, the scrotal perimeter maintained the same relationship among the groups observed for the body weight: the orange group presented the highest perimeter, followed by the purple, green and black group. Only 62.5% of the animals reached puberty until the end of the experiment. Animals reached puberty with the same score, scrotal perimeter and age, albirt they presented different weights