Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T06:59:27.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Resistance to body cooling in male and female sheep, and the effects of previous exposure to chronic cold, acute cold and repeated short cold shocks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

J. Slee
J. Slee
Affiliation:
A.R.C. Animal Breeding Research Organisation, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JQ
Get access

Summary

Twenty-eight female and 26 uncastrated male Scottish Blackface sheep were shorn and subjected to two acute cold exposures one week apart. Between exposures and for one week before the first exposure the sheep were kept either at +30°C (thermoneutral), or at +8°C (subcriticai), or at + 30°C with daily short cold shocks. Food intakes were restricted.

Females showed significantly greater resistance to body cooling than males during both acute exposures.

Both males and females showed acclimatization (increased resistance to body cooling) as a result of the first acute exposure.

Exposure to +8°C for one week did not produce significant acclimatization. Exposure to +8°C for two weeks tended, in females only, to increase acclimatization above that resulting from the first acute exposure.

Daily short cold shocks reduced cold resistance and inhibited acclimatization in females, but had little effect in males.

The male sheep lost significantly more weight during treatment and became thinner than the females. It was suggested that this, and their low cold resistance, might be related to a lesser ability of males to store fat as a subsequent source of energy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 1970 , pp. 13 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adolph, E. F. and Richmond, J. 1956. Adaptation to cold in golden hamster and ground squirrel measured chiefly by rates of body cooling. J. appi. Physiol. 9: 53–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baker, P. T. and Daniels, F. Jr 1956. Relationship between skinfold thickness and body cooling for two hours at 15°C. J. appi. Physiol. 8: 409–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, J. M., Doney, J. M., Gunn, R. G. and Jewell, P. A. 1964. The Soay sheep of the island of Hirta, St Kilda. A study of a feral population. Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 142: 129–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fregly, M. J. 1953. Minimal exposures needed to acclimatize rats to cold. Am. J. Physiol. 173: 393–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hardy, J. D. and Du Bois, E. F. 1940. Differences between men and women in their response to heat and cold. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 26: 389–398.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ogilvie, D. M. 1967. Adaptation of white mice (Mus musculus) to repeated cooling. Can. J.Zool. 45: 321–327.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slee, J. and Sykes, A. R. 1967. Acclimatization of Scottish Blackface sheep to cold. I. Rectal temperature responses. Anim. Prod. 9: 333–347.Google Scholar
Sykes, A. R. 1968. Ph.D. Thesis, Fac. Agric., Univ. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Sykes, A. R. and Slee, J. 1968. Acclimatization of Scottish Blackface sheep to cold. II. Skin temperature, heart rate, respiration rate, shivering intensity and skinfold thickness. Anim. Prod. 10: 17–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sykes, A. R. and Slee, J. 1969. Cold exposure of Southdown and Welsh Mountain sheep. I. Effects of breed, plane of nutrition and acclimatization to cold upon resistance to body cooling. Anim. Prod. 11: 65–75.Google Scholar
Zarrow, M. X. and Denison, M. E. 1956. Sexual difference in the survival time of rats exposed to a low ambient temperature. Am. J. Physiol. 186: 216–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar