Use of an ice vest to elicit a cold response in neonatal lambs

Abstract

The ability of the neonatal lamb to respond to cold stress is considered vital to the likelihood of its survival in many sheep production systems. Various methods have been used to assess the neonatal lamb cold responses including progressively cooled water baths (Slee et al. 1990), temperature controlled chambers (Alexander 1961) and noradrenaline and other drug treatments which stimulate brown fat metabolism thereby mimicking a real cold exposure (Slee et al. 1987). This study compared body temperature responses induced by an ice vest to those induced by a noradrenaline challenge as a means of assessing individual lamb variation in cold responses.