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Effect of high ambient temperature on behavior of sheep under semi-arid tropical environment

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Abstract

High environmental temperature is a major constraint in sheep production under semi-arid tropical environment. Behavior is the earliest indicator of animal’s adaptation and responses to the environmental alteration. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the effects of high ambient temperature on the behavior of sheep under a semi-arid tropical environment. The experiment was conducted for 6 weeks on 16 Malpura cross (Garole × Malpura × Malpura (GMM)) rams. The rams were divided equally into two groups, designated as C and T. The rams of C were kept in comfortable environmental conditions served as control. The rams of T were exposed to a different temperature at different hours of the day in a climatic chamber, to simulate a high environmental temperature of summer in semi-arid tropic. The behavioral observations were taken by direct instantaneous observation at 15-min intervals for each animal individually. The feeding, ruminating, standing, and lying behaviors were recorded twice a week from morning (0800 hours) to afternoon (1700 hours) for 6 weeks. Exposure of rams to high temperature (T) significantly (P < 0.05) decreased the proportion of time spent in feeding during the observation period in most of the hours of the day as compared to the C. The proportion of time spent in rumination and lying was significantly (P < 0.05) lower in the T group compared to the C. The animals of T spent significantly (P < 0.05) more time in rumination in standing position as compared to the C. The overall proportion of time spent in standing, panting in each hour, and total panting time was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the T as compared to the C. The result of the study indicates that the exposure of sheep to high ambient temperature severely modulates the behavior of sheep which is directed to circumvent the effect of the stressor.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Saumya Bahadur, Indu Shekhawat, and Rajendra Singh Rajawat for their technical assistance in the animal management and data entering to carry out this study. We acknowledge the support of Dr. Yogesh Gadekar in schematic representation of the treatments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adaptation Physiology Laboratory, Physiology and Biochemistry Division, ICAR-Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar, via, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 304501, India

    Kalyan De, Davendra Kumar, Vijay Kumar Saxena & Syed Mohammed Khursheed Naqvi

  2. Animal Nutrition Division, ICAR-Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar, via, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 304501, India

    Palanisamy Thirumurugan

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  1. Kalyan De
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  2. Davendra Kumar
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  3. Vijay Kumar Saxena
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  4. Palanisamy Thirumurugan
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  5. Syed Mohammed Khursheed Naqvi
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Correspondence to Kalyan De.

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All the experimental procedures were approved by the institutional animal ethics committee.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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De, K., Kumar, D., Saxena, V.K. et al. Effect of high ambient temperature on behavior of sheep under semi-arid tropical environment. Int J Biometeorol 61, 1269–1277 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-016-1304-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-016-1304-y

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