Characteristics and developmental changes of some plasma nutrition metabolites in neonatal lambs

Twelve spontaneously delivered Hu sheep neonatal lambs with a birth weight of 1.5-4.5 kg were used to study the characteristics and developmental changes of plasma nutrition metabolites during postnatal period in 7 days of age. The results showed that plasma glucose (Glu) concentration rose significantly within 4 h after lambing and then maintained a fluctuent upward tendency until day 7 of age. Fructose (Fru) and lactic acid (LA) concentrations were highest at 1 h after birth, tended to drop thereafter, and remained relatively stable levels after day 3 of age. Free fatty acid (FFA) tended to increase within 12 h after birth, followed by keeping comparatively high levels although decreasing fluctuently. An obvious increase of total protein (TP) occurred within 8 h after birth and then remained a relatively high concentration until day 7 of age. a-Amino nitrogen (a-NH2N) tended to rise by 4 h and fell slightly thereafter, urea nitrogen (UN) had an elevated concentration from birth to 8 h and then dropped obviously. Both a-NH2N and UN appeared to be fairly stable during the first week of age in neonatal lambs.