CONTROLLING LAMBS MORTALITY THROUGH EWES’ VACCINATION IN THE FARMS OF KUWAIT - H. A. Burezq; F. Khalil; J. Dashti; A. Essawi; F. Al-Thefeeri; M. Farouq (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2020)
A serious problem in the sheep industry of Kuwait is the high mortality rate of newborn lambs especially during the first three weeks of age. The present study was carried out with the objective to improve the existing vaccination protocol of ewes in the farms of Kuwait, to boost ewe’s immunity to produce high quality colostrum. The required baseline data of mortality of young lambs were collected by intensive survey work. Survey studies showed that the mortality rate of young lambs ranged between 30–50% in the sheep farms of Kuwait. Results of field experiment showed that the concentration of Igs of serum and colostrum collected from vaccinated pregnant ewes during pregnancy period was significantly higher (P<0.05) than the rest of the farms where no vaccination was made during pregnancy, and reached 45.79±0.561mg/ml and 65.9±0.805mg/ml in the serum and colostrum, respectively. In addition, the main causes of lambs’ mortality were diagnosed as due to the infections by; Clostridia and Pasteurella. From the present study it is concluded that vaccinating ewes during pregnancy period, resulted in significantly higher (P<0.05) secretion of Igs in ewes’ blood and colostrum, which resulted into a positive effect on decreasing the mortality rate of young lambs, and is considered very beneficial to livestock-industry-in-Kuwait.
Keywords: journal article; Sheep; mortality; morbidity; young lambs; colostrum; survey study