Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been used extensively to study population genetics because it has the unique features of maternal inheritance, a relatively fast rate of evolution and lack of recombination. A total of 82 unrelated sheep from 10 Iranian indigenous sheep breeds were investigated to determinate the maternal genetic diversity using a sequence of a 685 bp segment of the displacement lo...

The five Northern European short-tailed sheep breeds present in North America are the Finnsheep, Romanov, Icelandic, Shetland and Gotland. The Finnsheep and Romanov were first imported in 1966 and 1986, respectively, for their high reproductive performance. The Shetland, Icelandic and Gotland breeds were first imported in 1980, 1985 and 2005, respectively, for the uniqueness of their physical a...

There is considerable interest in locally adapted breeds of livestock as reservoirs of genetic diversity that may provide important fitness traits for future use in agriculture. In marginal areas, these animals contribute to food security and extract value from land unsuitable for other systems of farming. In England, close to 50% of the national sheep flock is farmed on grassland designated as...

Understanding existing levels of genetic diversity of sheep breeds facilitates in situ and ex situ conservation activities. A comprehensive evaluation of US sheep breeds has not been previously performed; therefore, we evaluated the genetic diversity among and within 28 US sheep breeds. Both major and minor breeds were included in the analysis and consisted of 666 animals from 222 producers loc...

in this study genetic diversity of eight iranian sheep breeds including; lori bakhtiari, makuei, moghani, taleshi, shal, zandi, naeini and kalakui was studied by using aflp method. a total of 309 individuals were analysed that produced 121 clear polymorphic bands. the average of heterozygosity within breed (hs) was high and equal to 0.2795± 0.0255. also, the average heterozygosity between breed...

background: with the increasing concern for health and nutrition, dietary fat has attracted considerable attention. the composition of fatty acids in the diet is important because they are associated with major diseases including cancers, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. the fatty acid synthase (fasn) and stearoyl-coa desaturase (delta-9-desaturase) (scd) genes affect fatty acid compositio...

About 90% of bovine malignant catarrhal fever (BMCF) PCR-positive cases in South Africa are caused by alcelaphine herpesvirus-1 (AlHV-1) and the other 10% by ovine herpesvirus-2 (OvHV-2). The prevalence of OvHV-2 in different sheep breeds in South Africa was determined in order to investigate whether the lower incidence of BMCF caused by OvHV-2 in comparison with AlHV-1 can be ascribed to a low...

The objective of the present study was to detect polymorphism in follicle stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) and beta subunit of follicle stimulating hormone (FSHβ) genes and their relation to litter size and body weight trait in Baluchi, Iran black and Arman sheep breeds. PCR-RFLP technique using ACCI and HinfI enzyme treatments employed to detection of polymorphism in FSHβ marker site but de...

BACKGROUND Dog erythrocyte antigen (DEA) 1.1 is the most important RBC antigen clinically, as it is highly immunogenic and causes acute hemolytic transfusion reactions (HTR) in sensitized dogs. OBJECTIVES The aims of this study were to determine the frequency of DEA 1.1 expression in 4 Turkish dog breeds, and to estimate the potential risk of HTR when blood from a DEA 1.1-positive donor is ad...