[Activity of disaccharidases in growing sheep. 3. Fattening lambs 5 to 18 weeks of age].

Lambs at an age between 4 and 18 weeks were kept on perforated floor and received pelleted fattening feed for lambs as sole feed ad libitum. After the maltase activity in the duodenal mucosa resp. the contents of the duodenum at an age of 5 weeks was low, it amounted to 6.98 resp. 5.31 units per 0.1 g fresh weight at the end of the eighth week and in the duodenal mucosa it remained on this level to the age of 18 weeks. In the contents of the duodenum it decreased to 3.25 units in this period. The lactase activity in the duodenal mucosa resp. the contents of the duodenum decreased continuously from 30.5 resp. 25.7 to 13.6 resp. 14.8 units in the period investigated. The maltase activity in the pancreas remained constant in the period investigated (4 units per 0.1 g fresh weight). Saccharase activity could not be detected in both duodenal mucosa and contents of the duodenum.