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Implanting melatonin at lambing enhances lamb growth and maintains high fat content in milk

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Abstract

Three experiments were designed to study the effects of melatonin implantation of ewes and lambs after lambing on the growth of lambs and milk quality throughout lactation. In experiment 1, 53 lambs either did (n = 28) or did not (n = 25) receive a subcutaneous 18-mg melatonin implant at the base of the left ear. In experiment 2, 55 lambs and their mothers either did (lambs: n = 28; ewes: n = 15) or did not (lambs: n = 27; ewes: n = 16) receive a melatonin implant. Milk samples were collected at 15, 30, and 45 d after lambing. In experiment 3, 16 lambs were separated from their mothers 24 h after birth, moved to an artificial rearing unit, and either did (n = 9) or did not (n = 7) receive a melatonin implant. In the three experiments, implants were inserted 24 h after lambing, and lambs were weighed (LW) weekly until weaning (for each experiment, 7, 6, and 5 wk., respectively). Average daily gains (ADG) from birth to weaning were calculated. Melatonin treatment of lambs did not have a significant effect on LW at weaning or ADG, but lambs reared by implanted ewes in experiment 2 presented higher (P < 0.05) LW (±S.E.M.) at weaning (implanted: 13.61 ± 0.51; non-implanted: 12.09 ± 0.57 kg) and ADG (implanted: 221.00 ± 10.45; non-implanted: 189.92 ± 12.44 g/d) than did lambs reared by control ewes. At day 45 of lactation, milk fat and total solid content were higher (P < 0.05) in implanted ewes than they were in control ewes. Groups did not differ significantly in the protein and lactose content of their milk. In conclusion, melatonin treatment of ewes at lambing induced a high growth rate of their lambs and increased the fat content of the milk; however, the direct treatment with melatonin of the lambs at birth did not have an effect in their growth rate.

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Data availability

The datasets in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Bruce MacWhirter for the English edition of the manuscript and José Antonio Ruiz and Antonio Barrio for their help in the care of the animals.

Funding

Partially funded by Gobierno de Aragon (Group BIOFITER).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales de Aragón (IUCA), Universidad de Zaragoza, Miguel Servet, 177, 50013, Zaragoza, Spain

    J. A. Abecia, S. Luis & F. Canto

Authors
  1. J. A. Abecia
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  2. S. Luis
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  3. F. Canto
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Contributions

JAA conceived and designed the study. SL and FC performed the experiments. JAA wrote the first draft of the manuscript. JAA, SL and FC revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. A. Abecia.

Ethics declarations

The experiment was conducted at the experimental farm of the University of Zaragoza, Spain (41°40’N), under procedures approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Experiments at the University of Zaragoza, and in accordance with the Spanish Policy for Animal Protection RD1201/05, which meets the European Union Directive 2010/63 on the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Abecia, J.A., Luis, S. & Canto, F. Implanting melatonin at lambing enhances lamb growth and maintains high fat content in milk. Vet Res Commun 45, 181–188 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-021-09799-y

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