The ability of a sheep to shed its own wool has an attraction in scenarios where the costs of harvesting wool outweigh its value. Certain breeds and composites have the ability to shed their wool in the spring, and these are investigated in this work in an attempt to outline the genetics of wool shedding. One flock from a breeding group in Southern England (UK) containing sheep with wool-sheddi...

Quantitative measurements of blood flow (BF) to skin and several other tissues were made using radioactive microspheres in conscious sheep. The sheep were from established flocks that had been selectively bred for greater (Fleece plus) or lesser (Fleece minus) wool production. The BF rate per unit area of wool-bearing skin was significantly greater in the Fleece plus (n = 9) than in the Fleece ...

Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) is an inhibitor of canonical Wnt signaling pathway and regulates hair follicle morphogenesis and cycling. To investigate the potential involvement of DKK1 in wool production and quality traits, we characterized the genomic structure of ovine DKK1, performed polymorphism detection and association analysis of ovine DKK1 with wool production and quality traits in Chinese Merino. ...

The aims of this work were to quantify the requirements of Zn for wool growth in growing male Merino lambs, and to describe the histological lesions of Zn deficiency in skin and wool follicles. Four groups of male Merino lambs (n 4) weighing 22 kg were fed ad lib. for 96 d on diets that contained 4 (basal diet), 10, 17 or 27 mg Zn/kg. Sheep in a fifth group were fed on the diet containing 27 mg...

Effects on wool growth rate of abomasal supplements of several amino acids (glycine, glutamic acid, arginine, lysine, and threonine) and of some sulphurcontaining compounds (L-cysteamine, sulphuric acid, and methionine hydroxy analogue) were examined. None of the abomasal supplements, apart from methionine hydroxy analogue, was effective for stimulating wool growth. Methionine hydroxy analogue ...

A hydrosulphide solution (3% Na2S, 0.5% NaOH, 2% wetting agent) when misted-onto the skin of the sheep causes a frank break in the wool at the skin surface. Wool from this treated area can be manually removed 30 60 sec. later. The sheep handling device, mister, and ancillary equipment for wool handling have been developed to enable the technique to be used on commercial properties. The practica...

The Australian Merino is the most important genetic resource for the wool and the lamb and sheep meat industries of Australia. In this paper estimated genetic parameters for ultrasound scan and wool traits at yearling and hogget age are presented for Merino sheep. Results indicate that it is possible to breed Merino sheep that perform well for both ultrasound scan and wool characteristics when ...

One hundred female Markhoz goats (42±5 kg) were used to investigate the ‘male effect’ on estrous synchronization and reproductive characteristics of female goat during the breeding season. This was carried out in three separate experiments. In the first experiment, forty female goats were used in 4 groups with different distance from the male goats (i.e. source of pheromone secretion); A1 (1 me...

The genetic diversity and phylogenetic structure was analyzed in Marghoz goat population by mitochondrial DNA sequences. Phylogenetic analysis was carried out using hyper variable region 1 (968 bp) obtained form 40 animals. Marghoz goat proved to be extremely diverse (average haplotype diversity of 0.999) and the nucleotide diversity values 0.022. A total of 40 Marghoz goats were grouped into s...