Exotic lambs born in N.Z. quarantine

Press, 16 August 1985, Page 17

Exotic lambs born in N.Z. quarantine

The first exotic lambs from imported frozen embryos were born in early August at the M.A.F.’s Somes Island Quarantine Station. The first Texel female lamb to be born in New Zealand had to be delivered by caesarean section on August 4 as the ewe was suffering from toxemia. The frozen exotic sheep embryos of the Texel, Finnish Landrace and Oxford Down breeds were imported from Scandinavia last year by a Ruakura animal research scientist, Dr Robin Tervit.

They were implanted in local Coopworth ewes at Somes Island during March and May this year. The Coopworth ewes were chosen because they had lambed before and for their mothering ability. All the ewes on the island were examined with ultrasound equipment about one month ago and 94 were found to be pregnant A total of 141 foetuses are

being carried—lB Oxford Down, 65 Texels, 54 Finnish Landrace and four of unknown breed in ewes which received mixed breed embryos. Another 32 Coopworths were inseminated during May with Finnish Landrace semen which the researchers also collected and froze in Finland last year.

Of those, 24 ewes are pregnant, carrying 29 foetuses.

Dr Tervit said that this is an extremely good result and reinforces the value of the technique of intrauterine artificial insemination to get high pregnancy rates from low sperm numbers.

The ewes will stay on Somes Island until the end of the year when they will be moved with their lambs to secondary quarantine at Hopuhopu, near Ngaruawahia. The sheep will be multiplied there for the duration of the fouryear quarantine period.