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Fostering Lambs by Odor Transfer: the Substitution Experiment

University of California, Davis 95616

Abstract

Lamb-specific odor is used by ewes to discriminate between their own and alien offspring. The objective of the present study was to investigate the feasibility of transferring own-lamb odor to alien young to facilitate fostering. Shortly after birth, cloth stockinettes (body suits) were placed on the offspring of 37 multiparous ewes. At 48 to 72 h after parturition, a lamb from each ewe was replaced by an alien lamb. In 31 cases the odor-impregnated stockinette of the ewe's own lamb was placed on the alien lamb; in the remaining six cases the alien lamb retained its own stockinette (control condition). Lamb acceptance tests were conducted every 12 h for 2 d after fostering and once daily for the following 2 d. Twenty-six of the 31 experimental ewes (84%) adopted alien lambs using the odor-transfer technique. All of the control lambs were rejected. Of the 26 ewes that adopted foster young, 10 (38%) showed immediate acceptance and 22 (85%) were exhibiting acceptance behaviors by 36 h after fostering. There were no significant differences in the fostering success of ewes bearing single lambs and those with twins. The presence of own-lamb odor rather than the absence of alien lamb odor appears to be the salient cue for lamb acceptance. Lamb-specific odor transfer represents a relatively inexpensive and rapid technique to achieve maternal acceptance of alien lambs by post-partum ewes.

¹ Dept. of Anim. Sci.

² Univ. of California Hopland Field Station, University Road, Hopland, CA 95449.

³ The authors would like to acknowledge N. Martin and S. Hoy for conducting the preliminary tests for this study, S. Wallach for conducting the statistical analyses of the data, D. McGrew for technical advice and J. Hay and G. Dow for their technical assistance. G. Alexander provided incentive for investigating this topic.