Effects Study of Early Weaning Time on the Growth and Development of Dairy Sheep Lamb

Appropriate early weaning (EW) technology can maximize the value of maternal sheep production without impact the normal growth and development of lambs. However, there is no mature EW technology for dairy sheep lambs. This study aimed to establish an appropriate EW technology for the crossbreed offspring of Dairy Meade (DM) sheep and Small-tailed Han (STH) sheep. The male lambs with similar birth weight were separated as four groups: three experimental groups (EW, n=6 of each group) of 7, 15 and 25D weaning after birth which using restricted milk replacer (MR) and the control group (CON, n=8) which artifi-cially-reared with breast milk. The results showed that there was no significant difference in growth performance among each group at D90. In terms of organ weight, except the heart weight EW7 was higher than CON (p < 0.05), there was no significant difference between others (p > 0.05). The routine analysis of blood showed that there was no significant difference in major components between EW and CON groups. Histological analysis of digestive system showed that there was no significant difference between EW groups and CON except the rumen papillae width of EW25. The results of rumen fermentation parameters showed that there was no significant difference in pH and microbial proteins (MCP) content between EW groups and CON. In total, Different weaning time did not significantly affect the growth and development of dairy sheep lambs. Early weaning at D7 is a better strategy for the improvement of financial value of maternal sheep.