Oestrus behaviour study
The frequencies of occurrence of different behavioural signs of oestrus in female Manipuri pony are shown in (Table 1). In the present study the behavioural oestrus signs observed in female Manipuri pony was raised tail, vulva swelling, vaginal mucous secretion, stallion seeking, inappetance and male acceptance were found to be analogous with the observations of (
Emady,1999;
Taberner et al., 2008 and
Panwar and Yadav, 2010). Although winking of clitoris has been described as an outstanding sign of oestrus in mares
(Arthur et al., 1996) nevertheless in the present study the said signs were not observed.
Occurrence of seasonality of oestrus
It was observed that the Manipuri pony mares showed the occurrence of oestrus were highest during spring (46.67%) and summer (43.33%) seasons and the occurrence of oestrus was maximum during March to June (16.67%) and no oestrus was recorded from the month of October to January which was similar with the findings of
Strickland, (1996) and
Hughes et al., (1975) stated that in northern hemisphere the breeding season starts from April to September in addition
Ginther (1992) accounted the official breeding season as from February to June.
Contri et al., (2014) also found an increase oestrous length during spring and summer than autumn and winter seasons in female donkeys besides horses are seasonal breeders with extensive sexual activity in spring, summer and autumn
(Talluri et al., 2016).There are reports on mares cycling throughout the year under certain conditions. During winter anoestrus the incidence of oestrus behaviour and ovulation is low (
Ginther, 1974).
Parturition behaviour study
Pre-partum physical signs
Occurrences of pre-partum physical signs in female Manipuri pony are shown in (Table 2 and Fig 1). Pre-partum signs exhibited by all mares corroborates with the findings of
Forsyth et al., (1975) and
Blanchard et al., (2003).The behavioural signs of foaling observed in the present study during the different stages were similar with the findings of
Blanchard et al., (2003), Morel (2003),
Thangamani et al., (2018) and
Purohit (2019).
Signs of parturition
Behavioural signs including restlessness, isolation from human and herd mates, frequent lying down and getting up, abdominal straining, tail raising and inappetance were shown during first stage of parturition (Table 3, 4 and Fig 2). Results showed that all the experimental mares show evidence of amniotic bag at the vulva, lateral recumbency with appearance of fetal legs and abdominal straining. The outcomes are similar with the report findings of
Amann et al., (1989) and
Morel (2003).
Behavioural signs during the end of the second stage of parturition in female Manipuri pony are depicted in the (Table 5 and Fig 3, 4). Behavioural signs during third stage of parturition in female Manipuri pony are depicted in the (Table 6). Results revealed that 90.00% had normal expulsion of placenta with an incidence of retention of placenta (10.00%). In the present study the behavioural signs of foaling observed were almost similar with the findings of
Blanchard et al., (2003), Morel (2003),
Meliani et al., (2013) and
Purohit, (2019).
Placental characteristics
In the present study, the chorionic membrane of placenta was red colour and the amnion is almost translucent bluish colour and it was of micro cotyledonary diffuse placenta. Similar observations had been made by
Morel (2003) and
Thangamani et al., (2018) (Fig 5).
Timing of foaling
Twenty percent of foaling occurred between 6 pm and 12 midnight and remaining occurred between 12 midnight and 6 am (Table 7). As per the published studies, the primary foaling time peak was around 2 am and the secondary smaller peak around 1 pm but generally most of the foaling happened at night hours. In the present study the time of foaling observed were almost similar with the findings of
Meliani et al., (2013) which was influenced by environmental factors such as the month of birth, maternal mechanism factor of foaling and the sex of the foal
Meliani et al., (2013).
