BACKGROUND The rates of congenital disorders in Swiss sheep were determined by a questionnaire which was sent to 3,183 members of the Swiss Sheep Breeders' Association. FINDINGS A total of 993 questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 31.2%. Of these, 862 questionnaires originated from farms keeping one of the predominant Swiss sheep breeds: Swiss White Alpine sheep, Brown-Heade...

Morphological traits of the whole udder (circumference, width, height, and length), teats (angle, length and width), udder cistern (teat opening and cistern height), and milk yield were measured over one lactation in a total of 18 ewes (nine Chilota and nine Suffolk Down sheep) belonging to the same experimental flock (Centro Experimental INIA Butalcura, Chiloé, Chile). Analysis of variance sho...

in this study a set of 10 polymorphic microsatellites (maf33, oarcp34, bm8125, maf214, maf70, dyms1, mcm527, oarjmp29, oarjmp58, bm1824) has been used to assess the distribution of genetic variation in six iranian sheep breeds (sanjabi, kabude shiraz, turki ghashghaii, lori, bakhtiyari and arabi). from each breed 45 sheep randomly were selected and their blood samples were collected individuall...

Lactating St. Croix White and Dorper × St. Croix White ewes were used to evaluate the effect of breed and feeding a split ration on body temperature during the cool (March–April) and warm (July–August) seasons in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Within each season ewes were assigned to treatments (n = 8/treatment) based on breed, age, and number of lambs. Treatments consisted of individually feeding ew...

Genetic susceptibility or resistance of sheep to scrapie is associated with polymorphisms particularly in the three codons 136, 154 and 171 of the ovine prion protein (PrP) gene. The aim of the study was to reveal the PrP haplotype and genotype distribution in the Polish Merino breed and to make a forecast of the application of a scrapie resistance breeding programme for this breed. PCR-RFLP an...

Contagious agalactia is an infectious syndrome of sheep that is characterized by mastitis with reduction of milk production, arthritis, abortion, and keratoconjunctivitis. The disease is rapidly spread by the contact of the infected animals with the healthy ones. Domestic sheep and goats of both sexes can be infected at an equivalent frequency. Most of the researchers use culture and molecular ...

Biological control of parasitic nematodes of livestock is currently under development and represents another tool that may be integrated into helminth parasite control strategies. This paper presents a brief introduction to commercial sheep farming in South Africa and currently available nematode parasite control methods. These include the FAMACHA clinical assay, strategies of pasture managemen...

78 Ghezel and 76 Mehraban sheep were used to evaluate the effect of fat-tail docking on reproductive performance. Within two days after birth the tails of 32 Ghezel female lambs and 28 Mehraban female lambs were docked using a tight rubber ring. The lambs were allowed to reproduce for three lambing opportunities and their reproductive performances were evaluated. The effect of docking on the fe...

Sheep of the Pantaneiro breed and seven other breeds, raised in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, were genotyped using eight microsatellite loci. The aim of the present study was to determine the genetic variability, phylogenetic relationship, and patterns of gene introgression and miscegenation among the animals surveyed, to obtain information about the genetic structure of locally adap...