Reproductive Management of Sheep and Goats

Dear Colleagues,

Sheep and goats are an important source of animal production worldwide, with a major social and economic impact in the rural areas of developing countries. The traditional management of small ruminants is currently evolving into systems in which the efficiency of production, sustainable use of land, appropriateness of the breeds to changing environmental conditions and production and the management of waste and greenhouse gases have to be considered. The efficiency of reproductive management is a key part of this picture, aiming to optimize the age at puberty, seasonality, fertility, prolificacy, length of the postpartum anestrous period and flock-age structure. Such objectives may be accomplished through nutritional strategies and photoperiodic management in both females and males, estrus synchronization using either hormonal or non-hormonal treatments, scheduling of breeding, artificial insemination, pregnancy diagnosis by ultrasonography with re-breeding or culling of non-pregnant ewes and also embryo production and transfer. These topics were developed in a first volume of the Special Issue “Reproductive Management of Sheep and Goats” and we are now introducing a second volume to update them. Thus, we welcome contributions in the form of both literature reviews and original research papers.

Dr. Antonio Gonzalez-Bulnes
Dr. Paula Martinez-Ros
Guest Editors

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