Lamb and mutton are the most important sources of income for South African Merino farmers. The possibility of genetically improving survival of a Merino lambs was assessed with data from 5769 lambs that were born alive in the Cradock fine wool stud from 1998 to 2003. Three traits can possibly be linked to lamb survival and can therefore be included in selection programs, namely birth coat score...

The adaptive nature of sociality has long been a central question in ecology and evolution. However, the relative importance of social behavior for fitness, compared to morphology and environment, remains largely unknown. We assessed the importance of sociality for fitness (lamb production and survival) in a population of mark6d bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) over 16 years (n = 1022 sheep-year...

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor enhanced the efficacy of liposomal amphotericin B (LAMB) in a murine model of disseminated infection by Rhizopus oryzae, significantly prolonging survival and reducing tissue burden. The use of gamma interferon (IFN-gamma) alone was ineffective, and IFN-gamma combined with LAMB did not improve the results obtained with LAMB alone.

The efficacies of liposomal amphotericin B (LAmB) and amphotericin B deoxycholate (AmB) were compared in a diabetic murine model of hematogenously disseminated Rhizopus oryzae infection. At 7.5 mg/kg of body weight twice a day (b.i.d.), LAmB significantly improved overall survival compared to the rates of survival in both untreated control mice (P = 0.001) and mice treated with 0.5 mg of AmB pe...

Ewe performance was compared for five pure breeds of sheep (Finnsheep, F; Rambouillet, R; Dorset, D; Targhee, T; Suffolk, S) and the crosses in development of two maternal composite lines (C1 = 1/2F1/4R1/4D and C2 = 1/2F1/4T1/4S). The data involved 10,959 breeding season records of 4,219 ewes by 412 sires. Ewe production and the components (fertility, litter size, neonatal and preweaning lamb s...

This paper reports an investigation into metabolic and endocrine maturity in the neonate lamb and the relationships between litter size, birth weight, and maternal metabolic and endocrine variables on behavior at birth and survival over the first 72 h of life. Data were from multiparous, fine-wool Merino ewes (n = 150; equal numbers of single-lamb and twin-lamb bearing status) lambed on pasture...

lamb survival is one of the major factors affecting overall sheep productivity. lamb survival affected by environmental effect such as management, birth-type, year, season of birth, dam-age, maternal behavior, genotype of parents, and birth-weight. the data comprised 9989 records were collected from 1989 to 2009 in iranian baluchi sheep at abbasabad sheep breeding station. four binary traits cr...

What is the survival probability of a diffusing lamb which is hunted by N hungry lions? Although this capture process is appealingly simple to define ~see Fig. 1!, its long-time behavior poses a theoretical challenge because of the delicate interplay between the positions of the lamb and the closest lion. This model also illustrates a general feature of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics: lif...

Disseminated aspergillosis is responsible for a high mortality rate, despite the use of antifungal drugs. Adjuvant therapies are urgently needed to improve the outcome. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that the cytoprotective effect of erythropoietin (EPO) combined with amphotericin B can reduce the mortality rate in a murine model of disseminated aspergillosis. After infection with Asp...