Cumulative lifetime (five lamb crops) lamb production and wool production of 681 ewes were evaluated in this study. Lamb production and wool production from each ewe at the end of age 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 yr were added to the previous year's production and analyzed within age of ewe. If a ewe failed to lamb, died, or was culled, it received a zero for that year and subsequent years. Main effects i...

Seventy-two 8-week-old ram lambs from three breeds, Suffolk, Soay and Friesland, were offered one of four diets based on dried grass and formulated to have a similar fatty acid content (60 g/kg DM) and containing: Megalac (high in 16 : 0, control; Volac Ltd, Royston, Herts., UK), whole linseed (18 : 3n-3), fish oil (20 : 5n-3 and 22 : 6n-3) or whole linseed plus fish oil. The lambs were slaught...

This study was conducted on 528 neonates of Pak-Karakul sheep born during February to April, 1998 at the Sheep and Goat Development Center, Rakh Khairewala, District Layyah, Overall mortality observed in neonates was 9.28%.The mortality rate in male and female neonatal lambs was 9.72 and 8.90%,respectively. The survived lambs were significantly heavier (3.77 ± 0.63 kg) (P< 0.001) than those die...

Stress is an important factor in animal welfare. Hair or wool cortisol concentrations are considered to be potential long-term indicators of stress experienced by animal. Using Swifter sheep, we investigated whether ewe parity and litter size affect the ewes their offspring. We hypothesized that multiparous offspring would have higher than primiparous offspring, with larger litters lower smalle...

leptin (lep), the expression product of the obese gene produced primarily in the adipose tissue, is related to feed intake, growth and lipid metabolism. the aim of this study was to study the possible association between polymorphism of the lep gene with growth and carcass traits among three iranian sheep breeds of the shal, zandi and zel varieties. a total of 180 purebred animals of the shal, ...

Gastrointestinal parasites are one of the main sources of economic decline in sheep production around the world. Resistant sheep do not completely reject the disease; they only harbor fewer parasites than susceptible sheep and therefore have a lower fecal egg count. The present research was designed to evaluate microsatellite polymorphism in intron 5 of DRB2 gene and its correlation with H. con...

The present study aimed to analyze the live weight (LW) and some body measurements estimate LW of lambs in five different meat-type sheep breeds reared same flock under intensive conditions. A total 202 head lambs, including both genders Kivircik (K), Bandirma (B), Karacabey Merino (KM), Hampshire Down x crossbreed (HM), Ramlic (R), were conducted this study. Birth weights ranged between 3.94-5...

WFIKKN2 may play a role in the regulation of muscle growth and development, but to date there have been no reports on the effect of variation in WFIKKN2 on growth and carcass traits in livestock. In this study, the effect of variation in ovine WFIKKN2 was investigated in 800 New Zealand Romney lambs (395 male and 405 female), with five previously described variants (A to E) being identified. Va...

Data from 644 exposures and 552 lambings were used to analyze reproductive traits of 1/2-Finnish Landrace, 1/2-Dorset ewes (1/2 Finn); 1/4-Finnish Landrace, 3/4-Dorset ewes, (1/4 Finn) and Dorset ewes. Ewes were exposed to Hampshire or Suffolk rams for spring lambing from 1973 to 1978. The analytical model included fixed effects of ewe birth year (EBY), ewe breed (BR), lambing year within EBY a...

Little scientific information is available that has evaluated safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) cake as a substitute to conventional ingredients in small ruminants diet. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of feeding safflower cake in total mixed rations (TMRs) on lamb and kid growth rates, carcass traits and meat fatty acid composition. Two consecutive trials were conducted us...