Chagas, Juana
- Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
The objective of this study was to establish equations for the prediction of the water intake (WI) of hair sheep. The data set used was derived from eight studies containing 185 individual observations of hair sheep:120 non-castrated males, 22 castrated males, and 43 females in a feedlot. A stepwise procedure was used, with a significance level of P < 0.05, to determine which variables would be included in the prediction model. Then, a random coefficient model was used, considering the random study effect and including the possibility of covariance between the intercept and slope. Furthermore, sex classes were considered a fixed effect and tested in the model parameters. To validate the model, the comparison between predicted and measured values was performed using the Model Evaluation System. The correlation between WI and metabolizable energy intake (MEI), body weight (BW), dry matter (DM), dry matter intake (DMI), and temperature-humidity index (THI) was significant (P
Keywords
feed intake; multi-study approach; small ruminants; tropical environments; water requirements
Published in
Frontiers in animal science
2025, volume: 6, article number: 1694789
Publisher: FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Animal and Dairy Science
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fanim.2025.1694789
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/145542