Supplemental Data for "Frequency and Characterisation of Anomalies and Fractures of the Caudal Spine in Sheep with Undocked Tails"

Abstract

The dataset provided relates to the publication "Frequency and Characterisation of Anomalies and Fractures of the Caudal Spine in Sheep with Undocked Tails" in the journal Animals and is intended to increase the transparency of the data processes and allow reproducibility and traceability. At 14 weeks of age, the caudal spines of 216 undocked Merino land lambs was radiographically examined, and tail length and circumference were measured. Anomalies were documented and statistical correlation and model calculations were performed using the statistical programme SAS OnDemand for Academics (SAS, 2022).

The lamb ID represents a continuous numbering of the examined animals for targeted assignment. Litter size is used to describe the number of lambs in this litter. Sex can be female (w) or male (m). We used 4 different rams (male sheep) for the mating. Ram 1 and 2 are short tailed, Ram 3 and 4 have a long tail. Therefore the number of the ram (1-4) is documented. The parity describes the number of previous lamings of the ewe. Tail length and tail circumference are displayed in centimeters. The Number of vertebrae was counted on the basis of an X-ray image. The occurence of axial deviation, blocked vertebrae, wedged vertebrae and vertebral fractures coded with 1. If no change was found, it was coded as 0. The fracture localisation can be 1 = Caudal third of the tail, 2 = middle third of the tail, 12 = caudal and middle third of the tail or 0 = no fracture Axial deviation was defined as any manually irreparable deviation of the tail from the medians. A blocked vertebra was considered present if the vertebral boundaries of adjacent vertebrae were not clearly visible or were completely fused. Wedge-shaped bony structures present between two vertebrae were recorded as wedged vertebrae. A fracture was noted in any event where a vertebra demon-strated an interruption of bone structure.