b) Numbers. The total sheep population in the Chokla distribution area was 0.53 m according to the 1972 census and 0.511 m according to the 1977 census, thus showing a slight decline. Of these, adult males and adult females were 0.049 and 0.352 m respectively. Chokla is perhaps the finest carpet-wool breed, although most Chokla wool is now being diverted to the worsted sector because of the dea...

Follistatin (FST) is involved in hair follicle morphogenesis. However, its effects on hair traits are not clear. This study was designed to investigate the effects of FST gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) on wool quality traits in Chinese Merino sheep (Junken Type). We performed gene expression analysis, SNP detection, and association analysis of FST gene with sheep wool quality traits...

Melatonin implants are commonly used to control sheep reproduction during the winter solstice, but their effect on wool growth is unclear. In this study, wool growth was measured in 17 Assaf (carpet wool), 21 Rasa Aragonesa (medium wool) and 20 Merino (fine wool) ewes after inserting melatonin implants in January, February and April, and 13 ewes were used as control. All ewes were previously ov...

Supply chain management is currently receiving much attention in the wool textile industry especially following recent wool industry enquiries in Australia and New Zealand that have highlighted the need for improved communication between processors and wool growers. Supply chain management is also seen as a way of improving on-farm innovation, which is currently low compared to other agricultur...

Wool is an important material in textile manufacturing. In order to investigate the intrinsic factors that regulate wool follicle cycling and wool fiber properties, Illumina sequencing was performed on wool follicle bulb samples from the middle anagen, catagen and late telogen/early anagen phases. In total, 13,898 genes were identified. KRTs and KRTAPs are the most highly expressed gene familie...

OBJECTIVES We performed a cytotoxicity study by cell magnetometry, measured lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity by enzyme assay, detected DNA ladder formation, and performed morphological examination by electron microscopy in order to evaluate the safety of high temperature wool (HT wool), an asbestos substitute, using long and short chrysotile fibers (CF) as positive controls and phosphate bu...

Mixtures of essential amino acids were infused into the abomasum of sheep, and effects on wool growth were measured. Various mixtures containing methionine stimulated wool growth, whereas mixtures lacking methionine were not effective. In two experiments, the provision of cysteine in place of methionine failed to stimulate wool growth. These results indicate a specific role of methionine in con...

Oxidizing agents attack the disulfide groups of the cystine in wool and increase the solubility of the wool in alkaline solutions. The determination of the alkalisolubility may be used as a measure of the extent to which the wool is oxidized. The method is applicaule as a control in practical processes, such as bleaching and chlorination, and offers a measure of the extent to which wool is degr...

An inner tube was inflated and then surrounded with plaster wool and plaster-of-Paris bandages. The plaster and the wool were next progressively divided. There was no significant reduction of the pressure inside the tube until both the plaster and the wool had been divided and separated from the inner tube along the entire circumference. These findings demonstrated that wool and plaster applied...

In recent years, natural materials are becoming a valid alternative to traditional sound absorbers due to reduced production costs and environmental protection. This paper reports the acoustical characterization of sheep wool. Measurements on normal incidence and diffuse-incidence sound absorption coefficients of different samples are reported. The airflow resistance has also been measured. The...