Rearing performance of farmed fallow deer (Dama dama).
The ability of fallow does to rear fawns to weaning age was examined in a group of 243 adult does of known age (Group 1) and 509 adult does of unknown age (Group 2). All does had between 1 and 8 opportunities to rear fawns. There was an increasing proportion of does that failed to rear a fawn to weaning age as the number of rearing opportunities increased, although most does (93.6%) only failed on one occasion. A small percentage of does in groups 1 and 2 failed repeatedly to rear fawns to weaning. At slaughter, the presumed causes of failure in chronic non-breeders included pyometron, cystic ovaries, cervical cysts, a vulval neoplasm and salpingitis. The overall rearing success of both groups of deer was 82.4% and there was no consistent pattern of rearing failure relating to parity or previous rearing history.
Mulley
R C
RC
Department of Animal Health, University of Sydney, Camden, New South Wales.
English
A W
AW
Kirby
A C
AC
D000818:Animals; D003670:Deer / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D012098:Reproduction; D014886:Weaning