Booth Id:
ANIM034
Category:
Animal Sciences
Year:
2023
Finalist Names:
Harvey, Everlee (School: Central Lee High School)
Abstract:
There are many responsibilities that come with owning livestock. With many farmer's livestock that give birth during the winter months, there is a higher mortality risk due to sub-freezing temperatures. With the potential loss of livestock, many farmers may see a decline in their profit for that year, resulting in a loss. The issue is the farmer not being present to assist if needed due to unknown birthing times. Previous research concluded that CIDR sticks have been able to synchronize oestrus cycles in cattle. This allows farmers that raise cattle to safely predict when their cows and heifers will give birth. There needs to be more research on this topic with sheep.
My project was based on conducting research on 20 ewes and being able to control their reproductive cycles with synchronization hormones to have them birth around the same time. Ten of the ewes were bred by the ram with no artificial hormones. The other ten ewes had a progesterone stick inserted intravaginally to try and synchronize Oestrus with all ten ewe’s reproductive cycles, along with an injection of Gonadotropin. I would like to find out if the ten ewes that would be synchronized would birth during the 72-hour time span and how this would be different from those ewes who were not synchronized.