Animal Welfare: weaning stress in sheep

Abstract

Weaning is the practice of definitive physical separation of the ewe and its lamb. This practice produces a state of stress in the mother and its lamb. In dairy sheep production, lambs are often weaned early to obtain a greater volume of milk for commercialization or industrialization. The present work focuses on reviewing the state of art and evaluating practices that could mitigate stress, such as social enrichment, and thus improve animal welfare; this would not only contribute to the sustainability of production, but also have a positive impact on human health, since a less stressed animal would get sick less, reducing the use of medicines and consequently, chemical residues. This will lead to the production according to the concept of a single health and a single well-being.