Agricultural sector accounts for about 1/3 of the Iranian GDP and 1/4 of the country workforce. More than 90% of the Iranian food requirements are produced in the country. Animal agriculture covers over 40% of the agricultural activities. More than 57% of the available animal units in the country are sheep and goats. Desertification, deforestation, water shortage, erosion, low efficiency and ou...

In sheep, the traditional chemical control of gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) parasites with anthelmintics has led to the widespread development of anthelmintic resistance. The selection of sheep with enhanced resistance to GIN parasites has been suggested as an alternative strategy to develop sustainable control of parasite infections. Most of the estimations of the genetic parameters for shee...

BACKGROUND The progression of scrapie is known to be influenced by the amino acid polymorphisms of the host prion protein (PrP) gene. There is no breeding programme for TSE resistance in sheep in Finland, but a scrapie control programme has been in place since 1995. In this study we have analysed PrP genotypes of total of 928 purebred and crossbred sheep together with the data of scrapie survey...

Hair sheep of Caribbean origin have become an important part of the U.S. sheep industry. Their lack of wool eliminates a number of health concerns and drastically reduces the cost of production. More importantly, Caribbean hair sheep demonstrate robust production performance even in the presence of drug-resistant gastrointestinal nematodes, a rising concern to the industry. Despite the growing ...

Graded numbers of marrow cells and 5 x 10(7) thymocytes were mixed in vitro and transplanted into X-irradiated (C3H x C57BL/10)F(1) mice. Upon injection of sheep or chicken erythrocytes, splenic plaque-forming cells secreting IgM (direct PFC) or IgG (indirect PFC) hemolytic antibody were enumerated at the time of peak responses. Anti-sheep and anti-chicken primary PFC responses elicited by noni...

The quantitative role of sheep in the transmission of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is not well known. To estimate the role of sheep in the transmission of FMDV, a direct contact transmission experiment with 10 groups of animals each consisting of 2 infected lambs and 1 contact calf was performed. Secretions and excretions (oral swabs, blood, urine, faeces and probang samples) from all an...

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...

BACKGROUND Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) are fatal neurodegenerative diseases of several mammalian species, including humans. In Italy, the active surveillance through rapid tests on brain stem from small ruminants started in 2002 on randomly selected samples of healthy slaughtered animals. Sampling number was proportionally related to the regional small ruminant population. O...

The population structure and genetic diversity of 57 European and Middle Eastern marginal and cosmopolitan sheep breeds from 15 countries were analysed by typing 31 microsatellite markers. Mean unbiased expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.63 in British Exmoor Horn to 0.77 in Albanian Ruda. South-eastern European and Middle-Eastern sheep breeds were significantly more variable than northwest...

The Booroola fecundity gene (FecB) and growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) gene belong to the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) superfamily. The mutations of these genes have additive effects on the prolificacy in sheep. The aim of the present study was to determine the possible mutations of FecB and FecG(H) genes in Lory sheep breed of the Lorestan province, Iran. Sixty blood samples wer...