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Little is known in Brazil about milk production of ewes. As wool and meat production have become important activities in the country, an increasing interest in milk production is observed. Thus, the objective of the present work is to evaluate the effect of the use of bypass fat in the diet of Bergamasca dairy ewes on milk production. Eighty ewes were divided into 2 blocks according to parturition and age. Within each block, half of the animals received either one of two treatments: A - balanced diet (concentrate + corn silage) without bypass fat; and B - same diet as in A with added bypass fat (35g/ewe/day). In both blocks, the lambs were kept with their mothers in pasture during daytime and were separated at night. The lambs were returned to their mothers after the morning milking and were weaned at 45 days of age. The ewes were machine-milked starting 48 hours after parturition, once a day, at 7h A.M., for 60 days. Diets were isoenergetic and isonitrogenous, containing 22% CP and 66% TDN on a dry-matter basis. The statistical analysis was performed by means of SAEG 9.0 (System for Statistical and Genetic Analyses). Statistical differences were not observed (P>.05) between treatments for average daily milk production until 45 days; however, after 45 days, treatment B showed a higher (P<.05) milk yield in comparison to A (540 vs 502 g/ewe/day). This result may be attributed to the use of diet with bypass fat, which supposedly provided better absorption of unsaturated fatty acids in the small intestine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several factors that contribute to variation in production and quality of ewe milk have been described, such as environment, breed, age of ewe, lactation stage, number of lambs or milking techniques, sanitary condition and udder infections, herd management and nutritional level during gestation and lactation. The objective of this project was to evaluate two milk production systems and their effect on milk chemical composition using 87 Bergamasca ewes. Ewes in one group were separated from their lambs 48 h after birth, while ewes in the second group were kept with their lambs until the lambs were weaned at 60 days of age. All ewes were machine-milked for a period of 90 days. Milk samples were collected once a week for analyses of lactose, protein, fat and total solids using infrared. The analyses were carried out at the Milk Cattle Breeding Management Technology Center, ESALQ/USP, Piracicaba, São Paulo. The data were statistically analyzed using the GLM procedure of SAS. Differences in production of fat, protein, lactose and total solids contents during the whole lactation were observed between the two systems (P<.05). Fat content of the milk from the ewe group without lambs was higher (5.51%) than the ewe group with lambs (3.74%). Differences in protein content of the milk were also found; however, average protein values were within levels reported in previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of dietary bypass fat on milk composition of Bergamasca dairy ewes. The experiment was carried out at the Ewe Milk Production Research Unit of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of São Paulo State University. Eighty Bergamasca ewes were divided into two groups and fed one of two diets: A - balanced diet (concentrate + corn silage); or B - same diet as A, with bypass fat (35 g/ewe/day) added to the concentrate. Lambs were kept with their mothers on pasture during daytime and were separated at night. After the morning milking, the lambs were returned to their mothers and weaned at 45 days of age. The ewes were machine-milked for 60 days. Milk samples were collected once weekly for analysis of lactose, protein, fat and total solids. The data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance. For the first 45 days of lactation, significant differences (P<.05) were observed for protein and lactose, with ewes fed diet B having higher means, whereas differences were not observed (P>.05) for fat and total solids. After 45 days of lactation, significant differences (P<.05) were found only for fat and lactose, which may be explained by the higher milk production of ewes fed diet B because some researchers have reported a negative correlation between production and concentration of milk constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of Brazilian breeds present capability for meat or wool production, but it is possible to find animals with dairy properties. Bergamasca ewes, for example, introduced in Brazil in 1940, are raised in the Northeast for meat production. Considering their Italian origin, they could be used for milk production; however, the amount of milk produced by lactation and its characteristics are not well known. In view of this, the objective of the present work, carried out at the Ewe Milk Production Research Unit of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the São Paulo State University (UNESP), is to evaluate the effect of the different management systems on milk production of Bergamasca ewes. Eighty seven ewes were used and submitted to two milk production systems. In the group without lambs, these were separated from their mothers 48h after birth, while, in the mixed group, lambs were kept with their mothers until to 60 days of age, when they were weaned. Both ewes from the group without lambs and from the mixed group were machine-milked for a period of 90 days and milk production was daily measured during the whole experimental period. The statistical analysis was performed by means of the GLM procedure of the Statistical Analysis System (SAS, 1985). Ewes managed in the group without lamb presented higher (P<.05) daily average milk production in comparison to the mixed group. This difference may be explained, in part, by milk injection inhibition during machine-milking. In the beginning of lactation, the absence of a proper sign during machine-milking, which is usually present when females are nursing their lambs, inhibits the release of ocytocin and milk ejection reflex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty nine multiparous Santa Inês ewes, all of them at the same reproductive age, were submitted to two nutrition levels over the last gestation month and lactation (corn silage diet and corn silage plus concentrate diet) and two weaning ages (45 and 70 days). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of these treatments on ewe and lamb performance and on the incidence of subclinical mastitis. Treatments 1 (corn silage and weaning age 45 days) and 3 (corn silage and weaning age 70 days) diets were composed of corn silage (7.43 % CP; 69.65 % TDN; 28.97 % DM; 22.45% CF; 4.37% FC and 3.73% ash) which simulated pasture condition. The animals in treatment 2 and 4 were fed corn silage plus concentrate, in a 65:35 ratio. The whole diet composition was 13.4% CP and 65% TDN, according to NRC (1985) requirements for lactation. Milk production was determined weekly, starting in the second week after parturition, according to Susin et al. (1995). Subclinical mastitis diagnostic was performed by California Mastitis Test (CMT), microbiological culture and somatic cell count. Corn silage plus concentrate diet treatments presented the best parturition weight, milk production and lamb performance from birth to weaning (P<.05). Regardless nutrional levels and weaning age, subclinical mastitis was reported in 37.93% of the ewes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty nine multiparous Santa Inês ewes, all of them at the same reproductive age, were submitted to four treatments in the last gestation month and during lactation. A factorial delineation (two nutrition levels and two weaning ages), was used as follows: treatment 1: corn silage diet and weaning at the age of 45 days; treatment 2: corn silage plus concentrate diet and weaning at the age of 45 days; treatment 3: corn silage diet and weaning at the age of 70 days; treatment 4: corn silage plus concentrate diet and weaning at the age of 70 days. Colostrum samples were collected after parturition, 24 and 48 hours later, to determine immunoglobulin concentration by Faey & Mc Kelvey (1965) method. Milk samples were collected weekly, starting in the second week after parturition to somatic cell count. It were analyzed both in colostrum and milk, the contents of protein, fat, lactose and total solids. There was diet effect (P<.05) for colostrum protein, fat and total solids. The ewe group fed with corn silage plus concentrate presented the lowest values of colostrum contents. For milk fat percentage the higher result (P<.05) was obtained only for weaning at 70 versus 45 days of age (5.51 and 4.32 respectively). The milk chemical composition was similar to the values obtained by other authors for milk production breeds. Somatic cell count (1,535,138 cell/ml) did not affect milk quality (5.26 % for lactose, 4.83 % for fat, 4.78 % for protein and 16.03 % for total solids). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]