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...

Understanding the genetic structure of domestic species provides a window into the process of domestication and motivates the design of studies aimed at making links between genotype and phenotype. Rabbits exhibit exceptional phenotypic diversity, are of great commercial value, and serve as important animal models in biomedical research. Here, we provide the first comprehensive survey of nucleo...

Domestic animals are unique in that they have been organised into managed populations called breeds. The strength of genetic divergence between breeds may vary dependent on the age of the breed, the scenario under which it emerged and the strength of reproductive isolation it has from other breeds. In this study, we investigated the Gulf Coast Native breed of sheep to determine if it contains l...

Through centuries of both natural and artificial selection, a variety of local cattle populations arose with highly specific phenotypes. However, the intensification and expansion of scale in animal production systems led to the predominance of a few highly productive cattle breeds. The loss of local populations is often considered irreversible and with them specific qualities and rare variants...

Genetic rescue, outcrossing with individuals from a related population, is used to augment genetic diversity in populations threatened by severe inbreeding and extinction. The endangered Norwegian Lundehund dog underwent at least two severe bottlenecks in the 1940s and 1960s that each left only five inbred dogs, and the approximately 1500 dogs remaining world-wide today appear to descend from o...

Sheep in Ethiopia are adapted to a wide range of environments, including extreme habitats. Elucidating their genetic diversity is critical for improving breeding strategies and mapping quantitative trait loci associated with productivity. To this end, the present study investigated the genetic diversity and population structure of five Ethiopian sheep populations exhibiting distinct phenotypes ...

Geometric morphometric methods (GMM) make it possible to study shape and size independently. The skulls of 58 adult specimens of different domestic breeds of Ovis were analysed by means of GMM in order to know if shape and size would allow their racial grouping. For this purpose, breeds were grouped a priori in four groups according to the general area of the origin of each breed: “West Mediter...

this study was performed to investigate two polymorphic sites from cyp19 gene (pvuii and mspi) and one polymorphic site from erα gene (snabi) in four cattle breeds including mazandarani, taleshi, sistani and simmental. in overall 278 samples for cyp19 and 206 samples for erα marker sites were genotyped using polymerase chain reactionsingle-strand conformation polymorphism (pcr-rflp) procedure. ...

This experiment was conducted to compare meat quality and carcass composition of a diverse sampling of sheep breeds. Finnsheep, Romanov, Dorper, White Dorper, Katahdin, Rambouillet, Suffolk, Texel, Dorset, and Composite (1⁄2 Columbia rams to 1⁄4 Hampshire × 1⁄4 Suffolk) rams were mated to mature Composite ewes. Lambs (n = 804) were reared intensively, grain fi nished, and serially harvested ove...

BACKGROUND: Animal breeds are often recognized through their specific characteristics, nevertheless, the breeds' anatomical and biochemical characteristics have not considered yet in many of the researches done on one-humped camels. There are some particular differences in camel breeds due to different climate conditions and rearing necessity. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the current study was to com...