Perinatal mortality is a significant cause of loss in sheep and other livestock and even with best practice management remains substantial. It risks the perception of poor animal welfare, and causes economic loss. Improving lamb survival is a priority for the sheep industry.
Effective strategies need to target the key causes of loss, which are difficult or prolonged parturition (dystocia) and the starvation/mismothering/exposure syndrome. Dystocia can cause hypoxia (lack of oxygen) to the young during birth, resulting in a reduced ability to thermoregulate, brain damage resulting in delayed progress to stand and suckle and behavioural changes, all of which reduce the chance of survival.
Caffeine is a methylxanthine used in human medicine to improve the survival of newborn infants with respiratory disorders, with mechanisms of action including:
Studies with sheep have demonstrated improved temperature regulation and stimulation of suckling, although the benefits to perinatal survival have been variable.
Caffeine is able to be delivered cost-effectively at the flock level for impact on periparturient ewes or other livestock at the appropriate stage of gestation either with known or unknown gestational age.
A method of conditioning near term livestock population to minimise the mortality rate of an offspring population by providing caffeine or a methylxanthine compound.
