BACKGROUND Nearly 50% of U.S. women of child-bearing age are overweight or obese, conditions linked to offspring obesity and diabetes. METHODS Utilizing the sheep, females were fed a highly palatable diet at two levels of overfeeding designed to induce different levels of maternal body weight increase and adiposity at conception, and from conception to midgestation. Fetal growth and organ dev...

BACKGROUND Low food availability leading to reductions in Body Condition Score (BCS; 0 indicates emaciation and 5 obesity) in sheep often coincides with low temperatures associated with the onset of winter in New Zealand. The ability to adapt to reductions in environmental temperature may be impaired in animals with low BCS, in particular during pregnancy when metabolic demand is higher. Here w...

The primary selection objective in the South African Mutton Merino is meat production, while wool plays a secondary role. The Merino, on the other hand is selected for wool production. Respectively 20 and 23 of each genetic different type of ewes were used in a 15-week indoor study to quantify the influence of nutrient intake on certain production traits when fed at different levels of their re...

This study aimed to evaluate effects of orally administered copper (Cu) to Chios sheep breed on serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), l-alanine aminotransferase (ALT), lactate deydrogenase (LDH) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), in order to establish a practical and effective method in diagnosing the prehemolytic stage of chronic Cu poisoning. Eighteen ewes were allocated to three tre...

Observations were carried out at Lismore in western Victoria on the performance of two groups of 250 fine wool Merino ewes mated in spring (November) and autumn (May) respectively. A greater proportion of ewes lambing in spring lambed within 150-170 days after the introduction of the rams than ewes lambing in autumn. The duration of lambing was shorter in spring. There were no significant diffe...

The objective of this study was to determine the pattern of nutrient flux across portal-drained viscera (PDV) and liver in ewes with varying numbers of fetuses. Catheters were placed in the hepatic portal vein, a branch of the hepatic vein, a mesenteric vein, and the abdominal aorta of each ewe. Plasma flow and net cholesterol, nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA), and glycerol release across the P...

This paper concerns the likely origin of three mutations with large effects on ovulation rate identified in the Belclare and Cambridge sheep breeds; two in the BMP15 gene (FecX(G) and FecX(B)) and the third (FecG(H)) in GDF9. All three mutations segregate in Belclare sheep while one, FecX(B), has not been found in the Cambridge. Both Belclare and Cambridge breeds are relatively recently develop...

The present study was undertaken to investigate to what extent pregnancy diagnoses made by transrectal ultrasonography could be confirmed by measurements of plasma concentration of ovine pregnancy-associated glycoproteins (ovPAG). A total of 424 Awassi x Merino ewes were synchronized for estrus and examined by transrectal ultrasonography. In Experiment 1, the ewes (n = 156) were repeatedly scan...

Ewes selected for fertility in autumn lambing were used to evaluate correlated responses in nocturnal hormone levels. Four jugular blood samples were obtained during nighttime in August from each of 113 selected and 69 control ewes. Melatonin levels were lower for selected ewes (143 +/- 14 pg/mL) than for control ewes (184 +/- 13 pg/mL), and melatonin levels decreased with increases in estimate...

Sources of variation in Finnish Landrace and Targhee birth weights from pregnancies following natural matings and intra-breed, inter-breed and 2-breed embryo transfers were studied. Birth weights were recorded on 94 lambs from naturally mated ewes and 117 transfer lambs. Two analyses were done, one on observed weights, and one on deviations of observed weights from weights predicted from litter...