Factors affecting pregnancy length and phases of parturition in Martina Franca jenny

The knowledge of normal pregnancy length, duration of parturition stages, and neonatal early adaptation are mandatory for a ationale management of birth, especially in monotocous species 16 with long gestations. This study reports data obtained from a largenumber of Martina Franca jennies with normal, healthy pregnancies, and spontaneous eutocic delivery of a mature, healthy,and viable onkey foal. Pregnancy lasts, on average, 371 days and only the fetal gender significantly determines pregnancy length, with longer estations observed in jennies bearing male fetuses. Other factors, such as the year of foaling, month of ovulation, month of arturition, Birth weight of the foal, and age of the jenny did not influence pregnancy length. The first stage of foaling lasted on average 65 min, the second stage 19 min, and the third stage 58 min. The umbilical cord ruptured on average within 16 min after birth, the foal stood up in 61 min, suckled the colostrum for the first time within 10 min after birth and again after 143 min of birth; meconium passage occurred, on average, 86 min after birth. Although times reported for the process of foaling are similar to data reported for the horse, the times for early neonatal donkey foal adaptation are longer as compared to the horse foal.