The once bred ewe slaughter method proposes the use of female lamb to produce a lamb and then both are slaughtered, increasing income and high quality meat production. Thus, this study evaluated the growth and reproduction performance of ewe lamb from Santa Inês (SI), a naturalized genetic resource, and their crosses (Dorper x Santa Inês (DOR), Texel x Santa Inês (TEX), Ile de France x Santa In...

The reproductive performance of Coopworth ewes after administration of zearalenone was determined in two trials. In Trial I, zearalenone was administered to groups of 33 ewes at rates of 0, 1.5, 3.0, 6.0, 12.0 and 24.0 mg/ewe/day for 10 days, starting on Day 7 of the oestrous cycle before mating. There was a linear decline (P less than 0.001) in ovulation rate with dose of zearalenone; also cyc...

This study was designed to identify genetically resistant animals to gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) infections using microsatellite polymorphisms of Ovar-DRB1 gene in Iranian Ghezel sheep breed lambs. In the present study 120 male Ghezel lambs were at 4 to 6 months of age randomly selected from six different sheep flocks in East Azerbaijan province (n=20 per flock). These lambs were naturally ...

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of co-Q10 and ellagic acid on sperm parameters after the freeze–thawing of Ghezel ram sperm. Twenty ejaculates from five Ghezel rams were collected in this study. Semen samples, which were diluted with a soybean lecithin (SL) based extender containing 0.25 mM ellagic acid, 0.5 μM co-Q10, 0.25 mM ellagic acid + 0.5 μM co-Q10 and no antioxidant (...

Production and well-being of sheep and goats in many countries are harmfully impacted by small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV) that cause incurable, progressive diseases. Susceptibility to ovine progressive pneumonia virus (OPPV), the North American form of SRLV, is influenced by variants of the ovine transmembrane protein 154 gene (TMEM154). The experimental objective was to estimate additive and...

Most North Dakota sheep production scenarios require substantially more resources, such as feed, labor, and facilities during late gestation and lactation. Early identification of pregnancy and pregnancy rate in sheep provides managers several options to increase flock productivity. First, removal of non-pregnant ewes can increase available resources for pregnant ewes. Second, identification of...

Sheep farmers are actively seeking unbiased information on the performance of sheep breeds and bloodlines within breeds to help improve their overall profitability. To help answer this question the Elmore Field Days Inc ran a comparison to determine the merit of five ewe genotypes for prime lamb and wool production from 2009 to 2014. Each of the five genotypes were represented by 42 ewes random...