Habituation and acclimatization of sheep to cold following exposures of varying length and severity

Abstract

1. Male and female Scottish Blackface sheep were shorn and exposed for 2 weeks either to a thermoneutral temperature (+30 degrees C), to chronic cold (+8 degrees C) or to +30 degrees C interrupted by daily short cold shocks (-10 degrees C). During and at the end of these conditioning treatments, the sheep also received two acute cold exposures (-20 degrees C, 4 m.p.h. wind for 2-8 hr) 1 week apart. Some of these sheep and a fourth (control) group, were subsequently re-shorn and slowly cooled to +8 degrees C.2. Resting metabolism and the metabolic response to cooling (both inferred from heart rates) were increased by previous chronic cold treatment. Resistance to body cooling (measured during acute cold exposure) was generally increased by both chronic and acute cold, and non-shivering thermogenesis was probably induced in the female sheep. These effects were defined as acclimatization.3. In contrast, cold shocks reduced the subsequent metabolic response to cold and encouraged facultative body cooling. This pattern of response (defined as habituation) therefore caused greater thermolability.4. Habituation and acclimatization were antagonistic. Habituation was removed by acute cold exposure and, conversely, acclimatization was inhibited by short cold shocks.5. There were sex differences in response but these were confounded by probable differences in insulation and in body condition (males thinner).6. It was concluded that the induction of different forms of adaptation depended on the length, severity and frequency of cold exposures. Habituation to whole body cold exposure apparently involved central nervous system centres normally receiving peripheral cold stimuli.