Imputation has enabled genomic selection in commercial livestock, taking advantage of a more cost effective Low Density (LD) panel, increasing the number of genotyped animals and hence accelerating the adoption process. A 5K LD panel has been employed commercially in New Zealand. This study investigated the accuracy of imputation to 50K and High Density (HD) panels using a new 15K panelbeing de...

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of municipal abattoir conditions and animal factors on avoidance-related behaviour (AB) of sheep at slaughter, bleeding times (BT) and mutton quality. The behaviour of 66 castrates and 19 ewes of different age categories was observed at three stages of slaughter. Higher behaviour scores indicated higher levels of AB. Time intervals between...

In developing countries, cross-breeding between local breeds and indigene or exotic breeds represents one of the main threats to the livestock diversity, leading to genetic dilution and loss of unique allelic combination underlying essential local adaptive traits. In this study, two Algerian sheep breeds, known to be highly admixed, were considered as a case study, to demonstrate how combinatio...

the objective of this study was to determine the relationship between body weight (bw) and heart girth (hg) in sardi and timahdite sheep in order to develop a prediction equation of bw from hg. the data used for this study included 476 records on bw and hg (227 in sardi and 249 in timahdite) collected on males and females of different ages in 33 private farms. the bw and the hg averaged 34.8 ± ...

The aim of this thesis was to study potential breeding strategies for indigenous livestock in Eastern and Southern Africa under low input production systems. The thesis covered a study of the status of supportive infrastructure for use of animal genetic resources. The case of Red Maasai sheep was studied as a model for design of strategies for improvement of an indigenous breed under threat. St...

The objectives of this study were to 1) evaluate the genetic diversity of Navajo-Churro sheep using pedigree information; 2) examine the distribution of the Navajo-Churro population; and 3) evaluate the effect of breeder dynamics on genetic conservation of the breed. Pedigree data and breeder information (city and state) were obtained from the Navajo-Churro Sheep Breed Association. Inbreeding c...

The Finnish Landrace (Finnsheep) is a well known high-prolificacy sheep breed and has been used in many countries as a source of genetic material to increase fecundity of local breeds. Analyses to date have indicated that mutations with a large effect on ovulation rate are not responsible for the exceptional prolificacy of Finnsheep. The objectives of this study were to ascertain if: 1) any of ...

T HE development of the Targhee breed of sheep began in i9=6 when the Bureau of Animal Industry at the U. S. Sheep Experiment Station, Dubois, Idaho mated select Rambouillet rams with select ewes of Corriedale XLincoln-Rambouillet and Lincoln XRambouillet combinations. Descendants of these crosses have been interbred and carefully selected to produce Targhee sheep. Spencer and Stoehr (x94L) hav...