Comportamento sexual de carneiros Crioulos e Corriedale com ovelhas sincronizadas

Abstract

The scenario of sheep production is in wide development, reflecting continuous investments in genetics and increased production, evidencing the great potential of sheep farming and how much, still, can be explored. In order to make this sector effectively profitable, it is necessary to consider a number of factors, including reproduction. The behavior of the animals directly influences the success of the mating, thus, the use of tests to evaluate the sexual behavior of males allows the identification of males that are able to recognize the female in estrus, to manifest sexual desire, and also realize the copulation. The present experiment had as objective to evaluate the sexual behavior of two Corriedale and two Crioula Lanada males, with and without previous experience, with different corporal conditions and scrotal perimeters during the reproductive period, in a herd of fifty eight Crioula Lanada females , submitted to a protocol of synchronization of estrus with prostaglandin. The males were evaluated for the scrotal perimeter, with the aid of a tape measure and in terms of their body condition, through palpation of the lumbar vertebrae. In order to perform the behavioral evaluation, the following parameters were considered: chasing, smell, Flehmen reflex, licking, head-butting, penis exposure, attempt to copulation, copulation, pelvic thrust, vocalization and disinterest. The data were previously standardized with the standard procedure of the R (Melo, 2013), with mean equal to zero and the standard deviation equal to one and performed the analysis of main factors. In the analysis of behavior in the reproductive period, 4 main factors (FP) were obtained, which were significant and explained 90.86% of the accumulated variance. The original loads with higher factor loads for the FP1 were chasing and smell, and explained 37,98% of variance, and for the FP2 were scrotal perimeter and age, and explained 21,45% of data, these explaining almost 60% of the cumulative variance. It was observed that the more experienced males performed more of the pursuit, the smell, and reflex behavior of Flemehn when compared to younger males. The scrotal perimeter and age interfere in the expression of the behavior of males during the breeding period.