Experimental bovine immunodeficiency-like virus (BIV)-infection and mixed infection of BIV and bovine leukemia virus (BLV) were performed on sheep. BIV proviral DNA and anti-BIV antibodies were persistently detected in all BIV-inoculated sheep. A slight increase in lymphocyte counts was observed in BIV-infected sheep, but the percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ cells in sheep peripheral blood mononucl...

The objectives for the project were to determine the incidence of sheep serologically positive for ovine progressive pneumonia virus (OPPV) and frequency of diplotypes known to affect OPPV susceptibility in sheep. Of the 12 flocks tested, 1/3 had a high incidence of OPPV positive sheep and 2/3 had a low incidence or no sheep test positive for OPPV. Sheep with both copies of the more favorable d...

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) surveyed U.S. sheep producers to determine the kinds of non-lethal (NL) predator control measures they used in 1994. An analysis of responses from 8,451 sheep producers showed that 34% of the nation's sheep producers used fencing, 25% used husbandry, 20% used guard animals, 4% used frightening tactics, 0.3% used aversion, and 3% used othe...

Sheep scab mites, Psoroptes ovis, collected from a Merino donor sheep, were used to infest Merino and Dorper sheep, and Angora and Boer goats. Mites were placed on the sheep on 1 or 2 occasions and on 5 occasions on the goats. All the animals were examined at regular intervals for the presence of scab lesions and living mites. Both sheep breeds developed lesions, but those on the Merino sheep w...

The welfare consequences of long-distance transportation of animals remain a controversial topic. Animals that stand for most of the long journey (especially if additional muscular activity is required to deal with postural instability) are at risk of developing fatigue. Previous observational studies of behaviour and physiology suggested either that sheep do not become markedly fatigued by lon...

Lungworms are important parasites of wildlife and host infection status is often evaluated using coprologic techniques, most commonly the Baermann method. Recently, the FLOTAC® has emerged as a new tool for diagnosing lungworm infections, and methodologic comparison studies in domestic species suggest that this method outperforms many other established techniques. We compared a modified FLOTAC ...

Understanding the factors shaping the dynamics of carnivore-livestock conflicts is vital to facilitate large carnivore conservation in multi-use landscapes. We investigated how the density of their main wild prey, roe deer Capreolus capreolus, modulates individual Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx kill rates on free-ranging domestic sheep Ovis aries across a range of sheep and roe deer densities. Lynx ki...

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...

Brucellosis is an economically important disease worldwide. Bangladesh has been reported an endemic area for brucellosis. The occurrence of brucellosis in people and the distribution of the disease among the livestock to be spatially related. A survey of brucellosis was carried out in sheep of Netrakona and Mymensingh districts of Bangladesh. A total number 102 blood samples were collected from...

To elucidate the controversial systematic relationship of blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) and endangered dwarf blue sheep, we sequenced part of the mtDNA control region and Y-linked ZFY intron, and carried out phylogenetic analyses. Mitochondrial results revealed that the dwarf blue sheep is a strongly supported monophyletic group, with an average of 12.21% sequence divergence from the blue sheep....