Early mortality of lambs in African traditional livestock production systems.

Early mortality of lambs is a major constraint on total productivity. In 6 different environments the early death rate varied from 12 to 30% of all lambs born. Cause of death differed among systems but only a proportion could definitely be ascribed to infectious disease: nutrition, management and other environmental factors also contribute to the mortality rate. Mortality can be reduced by isolating solutions due to any of these factors but best results (lowest death rates) would be obtained by an integrated package containing elements of all these aspects.