Small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLVs) are prevalent in North American sheep and a major cause of production losses for the U.S. sheep industry. Sheep susceptibility to SRLV infection is influenced by genetic variation within the ovine transmembrane 154 gene (TMEM154). Animals with either of two distinct TMEM154 haplotypes that both encode glutamate at position 35 of the protein (E35) are at great...

Spatial patterns in trait variation reflect underlying community assembly processes, allowing us to test hypotheses about their trait and environmental drivers by identifying the strongest correlates of characteristic spatial patterns. For 43 evergreen tree species (> 1 cm dbh) in a 20-ha seasonal tropical rainforest plot in Xishuangbanna, China, we compared the ability of drought-tolerance tra...

In West Africa, consumers pay a major attention on the coat colour of the sheep due to religious and cultural reasons. White coated individuals reach selling prices up to three-fold higher than black coated sheep. The aim of this study was to ascertain the genotypic and allelic frequencies of MC1R and ASIP genes in order to assess possible implementation of breeding programmes focusing on the i...

the families of tgf-β proteins are the most important growth factors in the ovary for growth and differentiation of early ovarian follicles. three related oocyte-derived members of the transforming growth factor-β superfamily namely growth differentiation factor 9 (gdf9), bmp15 and bmpr-ib have been shown to be essential for follicular growth and ovulation. different mutations in the gdf9 gene ...

background: studies concerning ticks were of interest to evaluate the distribution and composition of species affecting live stock, thus it was a main step in our knowledge of the pathogens that they may transmit by tick. methods: a collection of 21 adult female and 15 male hard ticks, all is representing a single species of tick collected under the tail of wild goat. the specimens preserved in...

Wild Bactrian camels (Camela ferus) are listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and only persist in some of the most remote locations in northern China and southern Mongolia. Although the species has been recognized as an umbrella species for the fragile central Asian desert ecosystem and has been high on the conservation agenda, little is kn...

Background. A large proportion of natural grasslands around the world is exposed to overgrazing resulting in land degradation and biodiversity loss. Although there is an increasing effort in the promotion of sustainable livestock management, rangeland degradation still occurs because animals' foraging behaviour is highly selective at different spatial scales. The assessment of the ecological me...