TY - JOUR AU - Olofsson, Anna AU - Danell, Öje AU - Forslund, Pär AU - Åhman, Birgitta PY - 2008/12/10 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Approaches to estimate body condition from slaughter records in reindeer JF - Rangifer JA - Ran VL - 28 IS - 1 SE - Articles DO - 10.7557/2.28.1.192 UR - https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/rangifer/article/view/192 SP - 103-120 AB - Long-term fluctuations in population densities of reindeer and caribou are common, where pasture is the limiting resource. Pasture quality affects the nutritional status and production of the animals. Therefore, continuous information about changes in the grazing resources is important when making management decisions. The objective of this study was to investigate different possibilities of using routine and additional slaughter records as body condition indicators, and thereby indicators of pasture resources in the summer ranges of reindeer husbandry. Records from 696 reindeer slaughtered in the winter 2002/2003 were included in the study. We developed a model with carcass weight as body condition indicator and two different models combining fatness, conformation, carcass weight, and body size as body condition indicators. The results showed age and sex dependent differences between the variables, and differentiation of animal age and sex improved the precision of models. Adjusting weight for body size also improved weight as a body condition indicator in adults. Conformation and fatness had good resemblance to weight and body size adjusted weight and should preferably be included, together with carcass weight and body size measures, when estimating body condition from carcasses. Our analysis showed that using non-invasive slaughter records is a good and non-expensive method of estimating body condition in reindeer. <p>Abstract in Swedish / Sammandrag:</p><p>Tillv&auml;gag&aring;ngss&auml;tt f&ouml;r skattning avkroppskondition hos ren fr&aring;n slaktregistreringar</p><p>Fluktuationer i ren- och caribou-populationers t&auml;thet &ouml;ver tiden &auml;r vanliga d&aring; betet &auml;r en begr&auml;nsad resurs och beteskvalit&eacute;n p&aring;verkar djurens kondition och produktion. Kontinuerligt uppdaterad information om f&ouml;r&auml;ndringar i betesresurserna &auml;r viktigt i samband med beslutsfattande om f&ouml;rvaltning avresurserna. Syftet med denna studie var att utv&auml;rdera olika m&ouml;jliga s&auml;tt att anv&auml;nda rutinregistreringar och extra registreringar vid slakt som konditionsindikatorer och d&auml;rmed indikatorer f&ouml;r betestillst&aring;nd i sommarland inom renn&auml;ringen. Registreringar fr&aring;n 696 renar, slaktade under s&auml;songen 2003/2003 anv&auml;ndes i studien. Vi utvecklade en modell d&auml;r slaktvikt var den enda indikatorn p&aring; kroppskondition, samt tv&aring; modeller som kombinerade fett- och formklassificeringen med slaktvikt och kroppsstorlek som indikatorer p&aring; kroppskondition. Resultaten visade att renarnas &aring;lder och k&ouml;n ger skillnader i de olika variablerna och att modellernas noggrannhet &ouml;kar om djuren grupperas med tanke p&aring; &aring;lder och k&ouml;n. Att korrigera slaktvikten f&ouml;r kroppsstorlek &ouml;kade precisionen f&ouml;r vikt som konditionsindikator f&ouml;r vuxna djur. Fett- och formklassificeringen &ouml;verensst&auml;mde v&auml;l med storlekskorrigerad slaktvikt och skulle med f&ouml;rdel kunna inkluderas tillsammans med slaktvikt och storlek f&ouml;r skattning avkroppskondition fr&aring;n slaktkroppar. V&aring;ra analyser visar att anv&auml;ndning avslaktregistreringar &auml;r en bra och billig metod f&ouml;r att skatta kroppskonditionen hos renhjorden.</p> ER -