Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T14:27:49.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Compensatory growth in immature sheep: I. The effects of weight loss and realimentation on the whole body composition*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

K. R. Drew  and
J. T. Reid
K. R. Drew
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850
J. T. Reid
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Forty-eight cross-bred wether lambs were used to measure the effects of severe feed restriction and realimentation on the body and carcass composition of immature sheep. Ten of the total number of sheep were used as an initial slaughter group, 12 were continuously fed (six at the ad libitum level of intake and six at 70% ad libitum), 26 were progressively underfed and 18 of them were realimented after a mean loss of about 25% empty body weight (EBW).

Shrunk body weight (SBW = weight after an 18-h fast with access to water) was a good predictor of empty body weight (EBW = SBW minus gastro-intestinal contents) and the EBW of continuously growing sheep was a good predictor of body water, protein, fat, energy and ash, but it was not precise after realimentation, particularly in the early stages of refeeding. Restricted continuous supermaintenance feeding did not alter the body composition of the sheep from that of the sheep on the ad libitum intake at any given EBW except slightly to increase the carcass protein content.

Although underfeeding to produce an EBW loss of 25% generally produced changes in the chemical body components which were similar to a reversal of normal growth, body fat did not decrease during the first half of the submaintenance feeding and did not increase during the first 2 weeks of realimentation. Under all circumstances percentage body fat was very closely related to percentage body water.

Sheep realimented at 26 kg (after losing 25% EBW) contained, at 45 kg EBW, more bodywater and protein and less fat and energy than continuously-fed animals of the same EBW. The treatment effects were greater in the carcass and had little effect on the non-carcass EBW, with th e result that the refed sheep had 1800 g more water × protein in a carcass that weighed 700 g more than one from a normally grown sheep of the same EBW. The regression of calorific value of th e ash-free dry matter on body fat as a percentage of ash-free dry matter gave calorific values of body protein and fat as 5·652 and 9·342 kcal/g of ash-free dry matter, respectively.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , October 1975 , pp. 193 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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

Arnold, G. W., Gharaybeh, H. R., Dudzinski, M. L., McManus, W. R. & Axelsen, A. (1969). Body composition of young sheep. II. Effect of stocking rate on body composition of Dorset Horn cross lambs. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 72.Google Scholar
Barnard, D. L., Ford, J., Garnett, E. S., Mitchell, R. J. & Whyman, A. E. (1969). Changes in body composition produced by prolonged total starvation and refeeding. Metabolism 18, 564.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burton, J. H. (1967). The effects of age and weight on the body composition of sheep. M.S. Thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Burton, J. H. (1970). The efficiency of energy utilisation and changes in adipose tissue during periods of growth, weight reduction and realimentation in sheep. Ph.D. Thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.Google Scholar
Butterfield, R. M. (1966). The effects of nutritional stress and recovery on the body composition of cattle. Research in Veterinary Science 7, 168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drew, K. R. & Reid, J. T. (1975). Compensatory growth in immature sheep. III. Feed utilization by sheep subjected to feed deprivation followed by realimentation. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 85, 215–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elsley, F. W. H., McDonald, I. & Fowler, V. R. (1964). The effect of plane of nutrition on the carcasses of pigs and lambs when variations in fat content are excluded. Animal Production 6, 141.Google Scholar
Gharaybeth, H. R., McManus, W. R., Arnold, G. W. & Dudzinski, M. L. (1969). I. Body composition in Merino and Border Leicester cross Merino hoggets in relation to and at common empty body weights. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 72, 65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goss, R. J. (1965). Kinetics of compensatory growth. The Quarterly Review of Biology 40, 123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Howarth, R. E. & Baldwin, R. L. (1971). Synthesis and accumulation of protein and nucleic acids in rat gastroenemius muscles during normal growth, restricted growth and recovery from restricted growth. Journal of Nutrition 101, 485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jagusch, K. T., Norton, B. W. & Walker, D. M. (1970). Body composition studies with the milk fed lamb. I. Chemical composition and calorific content of the body and organs of newly born lambs. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 75, 273.Google Scholar
Keenan, D. M. & McManus, W. R. (1969). Changes in the body composition and efficiency of mature sheep during loss and regain of liveweight. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 72, 139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keenan, D. M., McManus, W. R. & Freer, M. (1970). Voluntary intake of food by mature sheep following restricted feeding. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 74, 477.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. H. & Clawson, W. J. (1964). Undernutrition and subsequent realimentation in rats and sheep. Journal of Animal Science 23, 214.Google Scholar
Reid, J. T., Bensadoun, A., Bull, L. S., Burton, J. H., Gleeson, P. A., Han, I. K., Joo, Y. D., Johnson, D. E., McManus, W. R., Paladines, O. L., Stroud, J. W., Tyrell, H. F., Van Niekerk, B. D. H. & Wellington, G. H. (1968a). Some peculiarities in the body composition of animals. Body composition in Animals and Man. National Academy of Science Publication, no. 1598, p. 19.Google Scholar
Reid, J. T., Bensadoun, A., Bull, L. S., Burton, J. H., Gleeson, P. A., Han, I. K., Joo, Y. D., Johnson, D. E., McManus, W. R., Paladines, O. L., Stroud, J. W., Tyrell, H. F., Van Niekerk, B. D. H., Wellington, G. H. & Wood, J. D. (1968b). Present status of various methods of estimating body composition. Proceedings Reciprocal Meat Conference, p. 82.Google Scholar
Reid, J. T., Wellington, G. H. & Dunn, H. O. (1955). Some relationships among the major chemical components of the bovine body and their application to nutritional investigations. Journal of Dairy Science 38, 1344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searle, T. W. (1970). Body composition in lambs and young sheep and its prediction ‘in vivo’ from tritiated water space and body weight. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 74, 357.Google Scholar
Tulloh, N. M. (1963). The carcass composition of sheep, cattle and pigs as functions of body weight. Symposium—Carcass Composition and appraisal of meat animals (ed. Tribe, D. E.). Melbourne, Australia: C.S.I.R.O.Google Scholar
Wilson, P. N. & Osbourn, D. F. (1960). Compensatory growth after undernutrition in mammals and birds. Biological Reviews 35, 324.Google Scholar