Chinese indigenous sheep can be classified into three types based on tail morphology: fat-tailed, fat-rumped, and thin-tailed sheep, of which the typical breeds are large-tailed Han sheep, Altay sheep, and Tibetan sheep, respectively. To unravel the genetic mechanisms underlying the phenotypic differences among Chinese indigenous sheep with tails of three different types, we used ovine high-den...

BACKGROUND Sheep scrapie is caused by multiple prion strains, which have been classified on the basis of their biological characteristics in inbred mice. The heterogeneity of natural scrapie prions in individual sheep and in sheep flocks has not been clearly defined. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In this study, we intravenously injected 2 sheep (Suffolk and Corriedale) with material from a n...

Research results and facts of indigenous sheep production were reviewed with the aim of delivering relevant information for the beneficiaries. The common production system used in Ethiopia was the extensive type, which was characterized by small flock sizes and the flock being periodically devastated by diseases. Some indigenous sheep groups of the country were characterized and their names wer...

Trypanosoma (Megatrypanum) melophagium is a parasite of sheep transmitted by sheep keds, the sheep-restricted ectoparasite Melophagus ovinus (Diptera: Hippoboscidae). Sheep keds were 100% prevalent in sheep from five organic farms in Croatia, Southeastern Europe, whereas trypanosomes morphologically compatible with T. melophagium were 86% prevalent in the guts of the sheep keds. Multilocus phyl...

The domestic sheep (Ovis aries) has been an economically and culturally important farm animal species since its domestication around the world. A wide array of sheep breeds with abundant phenotypic diversity exists including domestication and selection as well as the indigenous breeds may harbor specific features as a result of adaptation to their environment. The objective of this study was to...

Domestic goats are raised for meat, milk and hair production, in herds for rangeland weed control, and as pack animals. Domestic sheep, goats and wild bighorn sheep are all susceptible to a multifactorial pneumonia. We sampled 43 herd goats from 7 herds and 48 pack goats from 11 herds for viral and bacterial serology, parasitology, and Pasteurellaceae microbiology. The goats in this study were ...

Background: One of the adulterant practice in dairy industry is the use of a less costly type of milk such as cow and goat milk instead of more expensive ones especially sheep milk. The aim of the present study was to assess fraud identification of undeclared milk species in composition of sheep yogurt and cheese offered as “pure sheep” in Iranian local markets. Methods: Samples ...

How predators select domestic relative to wild prey is of relevance to depredation management and presents opportunities to investigate foraging theory as applied to mammalian carnivores. Domestic prey have numerous qualities that should increase their energy value to predators relative to wild prey. However, whether a predator specializes on domestic prey should also depend on the relative imp...

Xinjiang has large sheep breeds, but their origins, evolution, genetic diversity of systems are still unclear. In this study, the genetic diversity and phylogeny of 19 indigenous sheep breeds in Xinjiang, China and one western breed, Texel were analyzed. Single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) was used to detect polymorphisms of the sheep mitochondrial DNA fragment and based on SSCP resu...

Ten non pregnant, non lactating Corriedale ewes ate an average of 148 g fuzzy whole cotton seed per sheep per day and their mean weight fell from 40.3 to 32.2 kg over an eight week period. Two of the sheep died. A similar group of ewes, offered a mixture of 227 g of cottonseed and 227 g of wheat per sheep per day, usually ate all the ration. At the end of an 18 week period, there were no signif...