Fish oil may make for brainier lambs
Fish oil may make for brainier lambs
FEEDING fish oil and vitamin E to pregnant ewes could be one answer to improving lamb brain development and increasing early vigour and performance.
Feeding fish oil to ewes during pregnancy reduces the time taken for lambs to suckle, says Harper Adams University College researcher Liam Sinclair. "This is thought to be the result of improved brain development in lambs during late gestation."
Fish oil contains the n-3 long chain fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid which are essential for brain development. Therefore, feeding fish oil to ewes increases the supply of these beneficial fatty acids to unborn lambs, he says.
"But after lambing, lamb growth rates were lower when fish oil continued to be fed to ewes. Fish oil depressed fat content of colostrum. In the same trial, vitamin E supplementation to ewes during pregnancy increased lamb weights at birth and at four days old."
This winter, a trial at the college will combine feeding fish oil and vitamin E to assess lamb performance. After lambing, fish oil will be replaced with another fat supplement to avoid depressing colostrum fat levels, adds Dr Sinclair. *