Can an increased intake of metabolizable protein affect the periparturient relaxation in immunity against teladorsagia circumcincta in sheep?
Within the overall hypothesis that the periparturient relaxation of immunity (PPRI) to gastrointestinal parasites has a nutritional basis, we studied whether an increased intake of metabolizable protein (MP) could affect the expression of immunity to Teladorsagia (Ostertagia) circumcincta of twin-bearing and -rearing Greyface ewes. Two sets of iso-energetic diets were formulated to provide either 85% (L-) or 130% (H-) of the MP requirements during the last 6 weeks of pregnancy (-P) and the first 6 weeks of lactation (-L). Thirty ewes were allocated to LP or HP. Six ewes of each group were slaughtered after lambing (S(0)); the remaining 24 ewes of each group were allocated to either LL or HL, thus creating four treatment combinations during lactation (LP/LL, LP/HL, HP/LL and HP/HL; n=12). Six ewes of each treatment combination were slaughtered at Week 3 (S(3)) or at Week 6 (S(6)) in lactation. The HP ewes were heavier at lambing, produced heavier lambs, had lower faecal egg counts (FECs
