Ewe abortion and neonatal mortality are serious problems to sheep farmer. The objective of this paper was to report isolation of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae from aborted fetuses in a flock in Tehran, Iran. Abortion occurred in 10% of ewes in the flock. The fetuses were well developed and pinpoint, necrotic-like lesions were recorded on the placental cotyledons, whilst the inter -cotyledonary a...

to estimate the grazing capacity in each region it is necessary to determine animal requirement based on forage quality and animal unit weight of dominant sheep breed. in present study animal unit weight of farahani sheep breed was investigated. two herds were selected. thirty animals including 15 three and four years' old ewes, 5 nine months old lambs, 5 six months old lambs, 5 three and four ...

The objective of this study was to test the null hypothesis that heat production (HP) was equivalent between Suffolk and Texel ewes at common fasted BW and at common ages. Open-circuit respiration calorimetry was used to estimate HP in 48 Suffolk and 48 Texel ewes at eight ages (10, 15, 20, and 28 wk of age and 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5 yr of age). Sheep were individually penned in an environmenta...

Seasonal changes in ovulatory activity, plasma prolactin and melatonin concentrations were monitored in a wild (Mouflon) and a domesticated (Manchega) breed of sheep, both originating and living under similar latitudes (40 degrees N). Mouflons express ovarian cycles significantly later than Manchega ewes (October vs. July, P < 0.001); however, they ended cycling one month later than Manchegas (...

introduction one of the animal breeding aims is increasing the economic efficiency. therefore, mating among selected animals in order to enhance economic efficiency should also supply variation in population for next generations’ selection. this study was performed to estimate performance in cross breed lambs resulting from crosses of shal, moghani, afshari and varamini rams with varamini ewes,...

Identification of breeding objective traits pertinent to specific production environments with the involvement of target beneficiaries is crucial to the success of a breed improvement program. A choice experiment was conducted in four locations representing different production systems and agro-ecologies that are habitat to four indigenous sheep breeds (Afar, Bonga, Horro and Menz) of Ethiopia ...

In order to determine the efficacy of melatonin implants in initiating the lambing season and improving reproductive efficiency in sheep, ewes (n= 1932) from three breeds (Rasa Aragonesa, Assaf and Merino) received melatonin implants (Group M) every 45 days from the winter solstice (1 January and 15 February—winter; 1 April and 15 May—spring) on 12 commercial farms. The other group of ewes (n= ...