Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T17:24:30.832Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of additional lighting to provide a summer photoperiod for winter-housed pregnant ewes on plasma prolactin, udder development and lamb birthweight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

J. M. Bassett
J. M. Bassett
Affiliation:
The Growth and Development Unit, University of Oxford, University Field Laboratory, Wylham, Oxford 0X2 8QJ, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Exposure of sheep to a long-day photoperiod during late pregnancy results in greatly increased plasma prolactin concentrations in both the ewe and her fetuses compared to values in animals experiencing short days. To investigate whether the endocrine changes resulting from provision of additional lighting might also influence the pre- and postnatal growth of lambs or udder development in winter-housed ewes, two experiments were carried out. In the first, a group of housed Mule ewes, lambing in early January 1989, were given additional lighting to provide a long-day photoperiod [16 h light: 8 h dark] from 6 weeks before delivery until 6 weeks after lambing. In the second experiment, 50 housed Mule ewes were given additional light for 7 weeks before delivery at the end of March 1990. In both experiments, comparable groups of housed Mule ewes experiencing only the natural shortday winter photoperiod served as controls.

In both experiments, provision of the long-day photoperiod resulted, within 3 weeks, in highly significant increases in plasma prolactin concentrations in the ewes. Plasma prolactin concentrations in the lambs from ewes experiencing the long-day photoperiod were also increased at birth (8-fold) and throughout the suckling period (3–5-fold) compared to values in short-day control lambs.

Despite these large differences in plasma prolactin concentrations, there was no significant effect of photoperiod on the birth weight of the lambs in either experiment. There was also no effect of photoperiod on the postnatal growth of lambs in Experiment 1.

Provision of a long-day photoperiod resulted in some increase in the rate of growth of linear measurements of udder size in ewes during both experiments, but only resulted in a significant increase in estimated udder size at delivery in ewes with twins or larger numbers of fetuses in the first experiment. In both experiments the effect of a long-day photoperiod on udder size was similar to or less than the effect of one additional fetus.

The results do not suggest that prenatal photoperiodic experience results in any major alteration in somatic development in lambs at birth or during early postnatal life. They do, however, give some support to other observations that ambient photoperiod may influence pre-partum udder development in the ewe.

Type
Animals
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 119 , Issue 1 , August 1992 , pp. 127 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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

Bassett, J. M., Oxborrow, T. J., Smith, I. D. & Thorburn, G. D. (1969). The concentration of progesterone in the peripheral plasma of the pregnant ewe. Journal of Endocrinology 45, 449–457.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bassett, J. M., Bomford, J. & Mott, J. C. (1988). Photoperiod: an important regulator of plasma prolactin concentration in foetal lambs during late gestation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology 73, 241–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bassett, J. M., Curtis, N., Hanson, C. & Weeding, C. M. (1989). Effects of altered photoperiod or maternal melatonin administration on plasma prolactin concentrations in fetal lambs. Journal of Endocrinology 122, 633–644.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bocquier, F. (1985). Influence de la photopériode et de la température sur certains équilibres hormonaux et sur les performances zootechniques de la brebis en gestation et en lactation. Thèse Docteur Ingresse, Institut National Agricole Paris-Grignon (INAPG, 78850 Thiveral-Grignon, France).Google Scholar
Bocquier, F., Thériez, M., Kann, G. & Delouis, C. (1986). Influence de la photopériode sur la partition de l'énergie nette entre la production laitière et les réserves corporelles chez la brebis traitc. Reproduction, Nutrition et Développcment 26 (1B), 389–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claypool, L. E., Wood, R. I., Yellon, S. M. & Foster, D. L. (1989). The ontogeny of melatonin secretion in the lamb. Endocrinology 124, 2135–2143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ducsay, C. A. & Yellon, S. M. (1991). Photoperiod regulation of uterine activity and melatonin rhythms in the pregnant Rhesus Macaque. Biology of Reproduction 44, 967 974.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ebling, F. J. P., Claypool, L. E. & Foster, D. L. (1988). Ncurocndocrinc responsiveness to light during the neonatal period in the sheep. Journal of Endocrinology 119, 211–218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ebling, F. J. P., Wood, R. I., Suttie, J. M., Adel, T. E. & Foster, D. L. (1989). Prenatal photoperiod influences neonatal prolactin secretion in the sheep. Endocrinology 125, 384–391.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forbes, J. M., Driver, P. M., Brown, W. B., Scanes, C. G. & Hart, I. C. (1979). The effect of daylength on the growth of lambs. 2. Blood concentrations of growth hormone, prolactin, insulin and thyroxine and the effect of feeding. Animal Production 29, 43–51.Google Scholar
Forsyth, I. A., Byatt, J. C. & Iley, S. (1985). Hormone concentrations, mammary development and milk yield in goats given long-term bromocriptine treatment in pregnancy. Journal of Endocrinology 104, 77–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horton, T. H. (1984). Growth and reproductive development in Microtus montanus is affected by the prenatal photoperiod. Biology of Reproduction 31, 499–504.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lincoln, C. A. (1991). Photoperiod, pineal and seasonality in large mammals. Advances in Pineal Research 5, 211–218.Google Scholar
Martal, J. & Djiane, J. (1977). The production ofchorionic somatomammotrophin in sheep. Journal of Reproduction and Fertility 49, 285–289.Google Scholar
McMillen, I. C. & Nowak, R. (1989). Maternal pinealectomy abolishes the diurnal rhythm in plasma melatonin concentrations in the fetal sheep and pregnant ewe during late gestation. Journal of Endocrinology 120, 459–464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mellor, D. J. & Murray, L. (1985). Effects of maternal nutrition on udder development during late pregnancy and on colostrum production in Scottish Blackface ewes with twin lambs. Research in Veterinary Science 39, 230–234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mellor, D. J., Flint, D. J., Vernon, R. G. & Forsyth, I. A. (1987). Relationships between plasma hormone concentrations, udder development and the production of early mammary secretions in twin-bearing ewes on different planes of nutrition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology 72, 345–356.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nowak, R., Young, I. R. & McMillen, I. C. (1990). Emergence of the diurnal rhythm in plasma melatonin concentrations in newborn lambs delivered to intact or pinealectomized ewes. Journal of Endocrinology 125, 97–102.Google Scholar
Ortavant, R., Bocquier, F., Pelletier, J., Ravault, J. P., Thimonier, J. & Volland-Nail, P. (1988). Seasonality of reproduction in sheep and its control by photoperiod. Australian Journal of Biological Sciences 41, 69–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peters, R. R., Chapin, L. T., Leining, K. B. & Tucker, H. A. (1978). Supplemental lighting stimulates growth and lactation in cattle. Science (Washington, DC) 199, 911–912.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peters, R. R., Chapin, L. T., Emery, R. S. & Tucker, H. A. (1981). Milk yield, feed intake, prolactin, growth hormone and glucocorticoid response of cows to supplemental light. Journal of Dairy Science 64, 1671–1678.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, J. J., McDonald, I., McHattie, I. & Pennie, K. (1978). Studies on reproduction in prolific ewes. 4. Sequential changes in the maternal body during pregnancy. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 91, 291–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanchez-Barcelo, E. J., Mediavilla, M. D., Zinn, S. A., Buchanan, B. A., Chapin, L. T. & Tucker, H. A. (1991). Melatonin suppression of mammary growth in heifers. Biology of Reproduction 44, 875–879.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seron-Ferre, M., Vergara, M., Parraguez, V. H., Riquelme, R. & Llanos, A. J. (1989). Fetal prolactin levels respond to a maternal melatonin implant. Endocrinology 125, 400–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stetson, M. H., Elliott, J. A. & Goldman, B. D. (1986). Maternal transfer of photoperiodic information influences the photoperiodic response of prepubertal Djungarian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus sungorus). Biology of Reproduction 34, 664–669.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, M. J., Jenkin, G., Robinson, J. S., Thorburn, G. D., Friesen, H. & Chan, J. S. D. (1980). Concentrations of placental lactogen in chronically-catheterized ewes and fetuses in late pregnancy. Journal of Endocrinology 85, 27–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tucker, H. A. (1979). Endocrinology of lactation. Seminars in Perinatology 3, 199–223.Google ScholarPubMed
Weaver, D. R. & Reppert, S. M. (1986). Maternal melatonin communicates daylength to the fetus in Djungarian hamsters. Endocrinology 119, 2861–2863.Google Scholar
Weaver, D. R. & Reppert, S. M. (1987). Maternal-fetal communication of circadian phase in a precocious rodent, the spiny mouse. American Journal of Physiology 253, E401–E409.Google Scholar
Wettemann, R. P. & Tucker, H. A. (1974). Relationship of ambient temperature to serum prolactin in heifers. Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 146, 908–911.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yellon, S. M. & Longo, L. D. (1987). Melatonin rhythms in fetal and maternal circulation during pregnancy in sheep. American Journal of Physiology 252, E799–E802.Google ScholarPubMed
Yellon, S. M. & Longo, L. D. (1988). Effect of maternal pinealectomy and reverse photoperiod on the circadian melatonin rhythm in the sheep and fetus during the last trimester of pregnancy. Biology of Reproduction 39, 1093–1099.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zemdegs, I. Z., McMillen, I. C., Walker, D. W., Thorburn, G. D. & Nowak, R. (1988). Diurnal rhythms in plasma melatonin concentrations in the fetal sheep and pregnant ewe during late gestation. Endocrinology 123, 284–289.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed