THE INFLUENCE OF WOOL GROWTH ON WOOL CORTISOL IN LACTATING EWES ON DUTCH SHEEP FARMS

Abstract

Wool cortisol determination is a nowadays frequently used and convenient method of measuring chronic stress in sheep. The exact way cortisol accumulates in wool is not yet fully understood and might be influenced by the growth speed of the wool since high cortisol levels might inhibit wool growth and high wool growth might dilute the wool cortisol levels. This has been shown to be the case both in humans and in other animal species. It is therefore hypothesized in this study that higher wool cortisol concentrations correlate with lower wool growth rates. To test this the wool of 89 white ewes was used, that had grown over a period of four weeks, from two weeks post-partum till six weeks post-partum. The length of the wool samples was measured in a previous study and for this study the woo