Risk factors associated with neonatal mortality in LAMBS: An overview Swarnkar C.P.*, Sonawane G.G. Division of Animal Health, ICAR-Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Avikanagar- 304 501, Rajasthan *E-mail address: swarnkarcp@yahoo.com
Online Published on 12 February, 2024. Abstract The present review attempts to prioritize factors responsible for neonatal mortality, their prevention and control to increase lamb survivability. Small ruminants play a crucial role in Indian agricultural economy by providing livelihood to small, marginal and landless farmers. Control and prevention of sheep and goat diseases and effective health management are very important to curtail the losses occurred due to mortality. The neonatal period, particularly hebdomadal phase (0 to 7 days) is the most critical for lamb survival than post-hebdomadal phase (8 to 28 days). Infectious and non-infectious etiological agents associated with nutritional and environmental predisposing factors caused acute deaths (10 to 30%) in lambs with relatively higher mortality due to non-infectious factors (70 to 90%). Genetic and non-genetic factors are also important in causing lamb mortality. Respiratory ailments particularly, pneumonia (15%) is the primary cause of losses in the lambs of >3 days old. Normal respiratory pathogens are often found in pneumonia, but impaired lamb immunity due to environmental stress or management changes contributed to pathogenesis of respiratory diseases. Lamb mortality due to respiratory infections can be minimized by improving health management such as maternal nutrition, ventilation and avoiding overcrowding. Digestive disorders, mainly enteritis are another important factor for lamb mortality (around 10%) in the flocks. Inanition in lambs is attributed to poor quality and low quantity of colostrum and milk, maternal behaviour and perinatal asphyxia, therefore, attention should be given on these factors to prevent lamb losses. Birth weights are considered as an indicator to identify risk factors of neonatal mortality in lambs. It was observed that the lambs born with low birth weight (<2.0 kg) are more prone to enteritis, septicemia/toxaemia with lower survivability than lambs born with fair body weights (>3.0 kg). Top Keywords Lambs, Neonatal mortality, Risk factors. Top |