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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2017
In Northeast of Portugal sheep is reared under extensive systems. These systems frequently involve expressive body composition changes due to the storing and mobilization of body reserves, mainly fat. Body condition score (BCS) is the most common way to assess these reserves and the nutritional status of ewes. However due to the subjective nature of BCS, their quality has been questioned and other alternatives has been studied. For cattle there are some studies that use the real time ultrasonography (RTU) to evaluate the BCS (Schwager-Suter et al., 2000; Broring et al., 2003), but this approach was not tested in ewes. Therefore the aim of the present study was to establish a relationship between the BCS and ultrasound subcutaneous fat (SF) and Longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscle (LM) measurements.