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A comparison of the effects of body condition and short-term food restriction on the feeding behaviour of sheep

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2021

A.M. Sibbald*
Affiliation:
Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB9 2QJ, United Kingdom
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Extract

Voluntary food intake is generally inversely related to body condition or fatness in mature sheep (Foot, 1972). Since the intake of pelleted diets by housed sheep consists of a number of discrete feeding bouts or 'meals' (e.g. Bermudez et al., 1989), the relatively long-term effect of body condition on intake will be achieved through changes in feeding behaviour at the level of a single meal. The aim of this experiment was to compare the effects of body condition and short-term food restriction on meal patterns in sheep, to investigate the mechanism by which body condition influences daily food intake.

Type
Sheep
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 1996

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References

Bermudez, F.F., Forbes, J.M. and Jones, R. 1989. Feed intakes and meal patterns of sheep during pregnancy and lactation and after weaning. Appetite, 13: 211222.10.1016/0195-6663(89)90014-7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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Russel, A.J.F., Doney, J.M. and Gunn, R.G. 1969. Subjective assessment of body fat in live sheep. Journal of Agricultural Science, 72: 451454.10.1017/S0021859600024874CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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