THE EFFECT OF BREED, BODY CONDITION SCORE AND AGE OF EWE ON THE REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF EWES IN BREEDING SEASON.

This study was carried out to investigate breed, condition score category and age of ewe on the reproductive performance of ewes in breeding season. The animal materials were comprised 156 ewes of different ages and genotype and kept at Marmara Livestock Research Institute, Bandırma, Turkey. Fertility for Kıvırcık, Sakız and Gökçeada ewes were 0.83, 0.87 and 0.74 and were 1.44, 1.70, and 1.79 lamb/ewe litter size, respectively. The breed effects were not significant (P>0.05) on fertility, but significant on litter size (P<0.01). Gökçeada ewes had the lowest fertility (0.743±0.062) and Sakız ewes had the highest fertility (0.870±0.056). On the other hand, litter size was the lowest with Kıvırcık sheep breed (1.43) and it was the highest with Gökçeada breed (1.78). According to BCS categories at 1 unit intervals, significant differences were observed only for fertility (P<0.05 ), which gave highest values of between 3 and 5 for BCS. The age of ewes were significant on fertility (P<0.05) and litter size (P<0.01). Also, the effect of ewe age at mating on fertility and litter size was the lowest with age of ewe 3 (0.62) and 2 (1.39), while it was the highest with age of ewe 6 (0.907) and 6 (1.906). In conclusion, the BCS at mating, age of ewes and breeds seemed to affect fertility and litter size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]