Studies on reproduction in prolific ewes. 3. The development in size and shape of the foetal skeleton

Abstract

SummaryMeasurements of 21 bone lengths and breadths were made on radiographs of 215 foetuses of known gestational ages ranging from 50 to 145 days obtained from 80 Finnish Landrace x Dorset Horn ewes. Number of foetuses per ewe varied from 1 to 5, but the main statistical analyses were based on the 22 sets of twins, 34 of triplets and 11 of quadruplets. Equations were fitted to relate each of the linear measurements to foetal weight alone, to foetal age alone, to foetal age together with number of foetuses, and to foetal age together with foetal weight. It was found that there were significant differences between the twins, triplets, and quadruplets in the lengths their bones attained at any specified weight or at any specified age but not when both weight and age were fixed. The relationships to weight and age jointly were significantly closer than to either of them alone even after allowing for number of foetuses. The mathematical model that fitted best was a modified Gompertz equation of the formwhere ywas the measured length, w was the number of days prior to expected parturition, w was foetal weight, wu was an estimate of the expected foetal weight at time u, and P, Q, R and Dwere fitted constants.