This study was carried out on 60 Norduz ewes to determine the effect of ewe body condition at lambing on growth of lambs and colostral specific gravity. Body condition score (BCS), ranging from 2.5 to 3.5, had no effect on lamb live weight at birth, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days of age (P > 0.05). The average colostral specific gravity determined as 1.049 was not affected by body condition of ewes. A moderate positive correlation (r = 0.436) was observed between condition score and live weight of ewes (P < 0.001). The results of this study suggest that BCS is not a reliable estimator of live weight for Norduz ewes.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of metal-tipped, plastic-tipped, and electronic ear tags on the likelihood of infection using infrared thermography and to evaluate the effect on welfare by examining the behavioral responses of the lambs. Ninety lambs with an average age of 6 months were used in this study. Before the application of the ear tags, infrared images of the right and left ears of the lambs were taken with the thermal camera and the infrared temperatures were recorded. Measurements were repeated on days 1, 4, 10, and 30 after the ear tag application. The mean of infrared ear temperatures on days 0, 1, 4, 10, and 30 were found to be 14.60, 23.20, 23.77, 20.36, and 17.61 °C for the metal-tipped ear tag group; 15.69, 21.50, 20.42, 18.00, and 16.39 °C for the plastic-tipped ear tag group; and 15.17, 29.47, 27.49, 25.93, and 20.61 °C for the electronic ear tag group. The infrared temperatures on days 1, 4, and 10 in the control and experimental groups were significantly different from each other (P < 0.001). The plastic-tipped ear tags caused fewer problems and are preferred to the traditional ear tags with metal tips. The electronic ear tags caused more inflammatory reactions compared to metal- or plastic-tipped ear tags. The infrared thermography method may be used as a useful tool in the early detection of the inflammatory reactions and infections caused by the application of ear tags.

Tr en Amaç: Bu çalışmanın amacı, koyun ve keçilerde refah değerlendirmesi amacıyla ANI (Animal Needs Index) 35 L sisteminden geliştirilen protokolü kullanarak küçükbaş hayvancılık işletmelerinin hayvan refah kriterlerine uygunluğunu araştırmaktır. Materyal ve Metot: Çalışma, Van ili Edremit ilçesinde faaliyet gösteren ve tarım bilgi sistemine kayıtlı 100 baş ve üzeri küçükbaş hayvan varlığına sahip 61 adet işletme üzerinde yürütülmüştür. İşletmeler ziyaret edilerek gözlem ve ölçüm yoluyla 7’si barınma, 7’si yapı ve ekipman durumu ve 3’ü hayvan sağlığı ile ilgili olmak üzere 17 farklı parametre dikkate alınmıştır. Bulgular: Söz konusu protokole göre Van ili Edremit ilçesindeki küçükbaş hayvancılık işletmelerinin, barınma koşulları parametrelerinden birim hayvan başına düşen yüzey alanı ve yemlik boyutu dışındaki parametreler bakımından düşük-orta; yapı ve ekipman durumu parametreleri açısından düşük-orta ve hayvan sağlığı parametreleri bakımından da orta-yüksek puan refah kategorilerinde yer aldığı belirlenmiştir. Sonuç: Koyun ve keçilerde refah değerlendirmesi amacıyla ANI 35 L sisteminden geliştirilen protokolün, küçükbaş hayvancılık işletmelerinin hayvan refah kriterlerine uygunluğunu ortaya koymak amacıyla kullanılabileceği belirlenmiştir. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the small ruminant enterprises met animal welfare criteria by using the protocol derived from the ANI (Animal Needs Index) 35 L system to evaluate the welfare of sheep and goats. Material and Methods: The study was carried out on 61 enterprises located in Edremit district of Van province and registered in the agricultural information system, with more than 100 small ruminants. The enterprises were visited and 17 different parameters, including 7 housing, 7 structure and equipment conditions and 3 animal health, were taken into consideration through observation and measurement. Results: According to this protocol, the small ruminant enterprises in Edremit district of Van province were found to be in low-to-medium welfare category in terms of housing conditions parameters, excluding space allowance for each animal and feeder size, in low-to-medium welfare category in terms of parameters of structure and equipment, and in medium-to-high welfare category in terms of parameters of animal health. Conclusion: It was determined that the protocol developed from ANI 35 L system can be used in order to determine the conformity of small ruminant enterprises with animal welfare criteria.

The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental factors impacting preweaning growth traits in Morkaraman herds and to categorize weaning weight using the Gaussian mixture regression model. The mean live weights of lambs at birth, 60th, and 90th day (weaning) were determined to be 3.97 kg, 17.94 kg, and 24.92 kg, respectively. The effect of lambing years on live weights at all ages was found to be quite significant (p<0.001). The effect of dam age on birth (p<0.01), 60th day (p<0.001), and weaning weight (p<0.001) was also highly significant. Male lambs were superior to females in terms of birth weight (p<0.001), 60th day (p<0.01), and weaning weight (p<0.001). Birth type was only found to have a significant effect on birth weight (p<0.001). Additionally, it was determined that the weaning weights could be categorized according to districts using the Gaussian mixture regression model. As a result, knowing the effects of environmental factors on the growth traits of lambs, which are effective in the emergence of genetic potential, can provide important contributions to the strategies of breeding and management. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Morkaraman sürülerinde sütten kesim öncesi büyüme özelliklerini etkileyen çevresel faktörleri incelemek ve Gauss karışım regresyon modelini kullanarak sütten kesim ağırlığını kategorize etmektir. Kuzuların doğum, 60. ve 90. gün (sütten kesim) ortalama canlı ağırlıkları sırasıyla 3.97 kg, 17.94 kg ve 24.92 kg olarak belirlendi. Kuzulama yılının tüm yaşlardaki canlı ağırlıklar üzerindeki etkisi oldukça önemli bulundu (p<0.001). Ana yaşının doğum (p<0.01), 60. gün (p<0.001) ve sütten kesim ağırlığı (p<0.001) üzerindeki etkisi de oldukça önemliydi. Erkek kuzular doğum ağırlığı (p<0.001), 60. gün (p<0.01) ve sütten kesim ağırlığı (p<0.001) bakımından dişilerden daha üstündü. Doğum tipinin yalnızca doğum ağırlığı üzerinde anlamlı bir etkisi bulundu (p<0.001). Ayrıca, Gauss karışım regresyon modeli kullanılarak sütten kesim ağırlıklarının ilçelere göre kategorize edilebileceği belirlendi. Sonuç olarak, genetik potansiyelin ortaya çıkmasında etkili olan çevresel faktörlerin kuzuların büyüme özellikleri üzerindeki etkilerinin bilinmesi, ıslah ve yönetim stratejilerine önemli katkılar sağlayabilir.

This study aimed to evaluate the readability of electronic and visual ear tags in hair goat kids managed under extensive conditions. A total of 74 kids were identified with electronic and visual ear tags at birth. Readability of electronic and visual ear tags was 97.3% and 94.6% in static conditions at the end of 7 months, and 96.8% and 93.5% at the end of the first year after tagging, respectively. No breakages and electronic failures occurred during this study. Infected ear rate in electronic and visual ear tags was 45.9% and 17.6%, respectively. Under the conditions of this study, electronic and visual ear tags did not fulfill the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) requirements (readability >98%) for an official animal identification device at the end of the first year after tagging. Therefore, low animal traceability with electronic and visual ear tags was determined by this study.

Background: Further research is needed to estimate the marketable live weight of lambs with high accuracy and reliability while minimizing contact and measurement. This study aimed to estimate the 120th-day marketing weight of Morkaraman lambs by different machine learning algorithms, considering the variables of dam age, sex, birth type, birth weight, as well as 30th day, 60th day and 90th day live weights. Methods: Artificial neural networks (ANN), classification and regression trees (CART), support vector machines with radial basis function kernel (SVMR) and Random Forest (RF) algorithms for estimation of the marketing weight were performed for training (75%) and testing (25%) datasets. Models used in this study were compared based on mean absolute error (MAE), root mean squared error (RMSE) and mean absolute per cent error (MAPE) performance metrics. The most significant predictor of the marketing live weight in all models was the 90th day live weight, whereas the birth weight, birth type and dam age were the least important predictors. The correlation coefficients between live weight values estimated by the SVMR, CART, RF and ANN models and the actual marketing live weight were determined as 0.82, 0.82, 0.82 and 0.84, respectively. Result: The best prediction for the marketing live weight of Morkaraman lambs in the 4th month was obtained from the ANN model. Using artificial neural networks to determine the marketing weight of lambs can save time and labor because of the reduced number of weighings. It may improve decisions made in flock management.