Tibetan sheep, an indigenous breed, have a wide variety of phenotypes and a colorful coat, which make this breed an interesting model for evaluating the effects of coat-color gene mutations on this phenotypic trait. The agouti signaling protein (ASIP) gene is a positional candidate gene, as was inferred based on previous study. In our research, ASIP gene copy numbers in genomic DNA were detecte...

An objective and accountable method is needed for deducing the number of registered animals in a breed from registration data. By following the principle that individual breeders register sufficient young females to be certain of having enough replacements for their current breeding stock, the ratios were calculated of the number of adult females in a breed to the number of female registrations...

This thesis concerns an investigation of the ability of sheep to withstand cold. It includes studies of the initial cold resistance, the ability to acclimatize to cold, and of the variation within and between breeds of sheep. The cold resistance of shorn Scottish Blackface, Southdown and Welsh Mountain sheep, equal numbers on high or maintenance levels of nutrition, was measured by the rate of ...

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays a central role in the control of disease resistance and immune response. Extensive genetic diversity in MHC genes provides a valuable source for genetic improvement, via selection, in many domestic animals. Exon 2 of the class II MHC, termed Ovar-DRB1 in domestic sheep (Ovis aries), has been suggested as important disease resistance and immune re...

Development of the Polypay breed was undertaken to combine into a composite breed the potential for greatly increased reproductive capacity along with desirable growth rate and carcass quality. Four breeds were selected for the foundation of the new breed--the Rambouillet and the Targhee for hardiness, large body size, long breeding season, herding instinct and fleece characteristics; the Dorse...

Sporidesmin is the mycotoxin that causes facial eczema disease (FE) in New Zealand (NZ) livestock. In an artificial sporidesmin dosing test, the introduced Finnish Landrace sheep breed was found to be significantly more tolerant to FE than the introduced Texel breed. This finding enables cross-breeding strategies to improve disease tolerance. Combining published data with the current study, a t...

The neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) plays an important role in regulating IgG homeostasis in the body and passive protection to the offspring. Changes in FcRn expression levels caused by genetic polymorphisms of Fcgrt, which encodes FcRn, may lead to inter-individual differences in colostrum IgG levels in sheep. In this study, we sequenced the FcRn partial heavy chain from 179 sheep from Xinjiang P...

ABSTRACT: Sheep production is expanding among small farmers in Southern Uruguay. Currently, Corriedale and Milchschaf are being used, but not Highlander. However, there lack of experimental information regarding the relative performance these breeds. We conducted an experiment where three sheep breeds were run together at Regional Centre, located region question. Wool, body, reproductive lamb g...

The aim of this study is to estimate body weight from withers height, body length, and chest girth measurements by using Regression Tree (RT) Method. For this purpose, data were collected from 239 male sheep at yearling age (11-13 months) of five indigenous sheep breeds (Mengali (48), Balochi (48), Harnai (48), Beverigh (47) and Rakhshani (48)) reared in Balochistan, Pakistan. Bivariate relatio...