Effects of gentling on behavior and meat quality of lambs

Effects of gentling on behavior and meat quality of lambs

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Within few hours after parturition lambs develop a strong and selective relationship with their mothers (Poindron and Le Neindre, 1980).In order to increase the amount of milk available for transformation, lambs often are prematurely separated from the ewes, thus inducing an early disruption of the mother-young relationship.A number of authors demonstrated that the lack of Coffee Mug the maternal bond can inhibit the welfare state of the lambs (Sevi et al., 2001) and reduced animal welfare can have detrimental effects on meat Waist Bags quality in many animals species (Gregory, 1998) as well as in sheep (Napolitano et al.

, 2002a).A possible recover from conditions of poor animal welfare may be attained through the administration of gentle contacts by humans (Boivin et al., 2000) which may supply an additional social bond with members of a different animal species.The present study aims to verify the effect of artificial rearing on lamb welfare and meat quality, and assess the possibility to increase both by means of gentling.