Influence of pre- and postnatal stress on the social motivation and fear response in lambs

An abstract of the study conducted by Averós et al, exploring the impact of 2 experimental group sizes (GS) experienced by gestating ewes (prenatal stress) and of early maternal separation (postnatal stress) on the social motivation and fear responses in lambs is presented. The results appear to suggest that MR lambs and, to a lower extent, those born from ewes housed at GS6 during pregnancy had increased social motivation and adds that females appear to show a higher social motivation.