This study examined the hypothesis that responses of Scottish Blackface (BF, a hill breed) and Suffolk (SUF, a lowland breed) ewes to undernutrition between d 1 and 90 of pregnancy would differ. Over 2 consecutive breeding seasons, ewes (4 pens/treatment; 15 to 20 ewes/pen) were artificially inseminated and from d 1 to 90 after AI allocated to 0.75 (restricted; RES) or 1.0 (control; CON) energy...

Sixty eight adult ewes of Zel sheep breed were screened with forced PCR RFLP method for the detection of the FecB gene and its effects on litter size. Genomic DNA was extracted from the blood of 68 Zel matured ewes with litter size varied from 1 to 2 lambs per ewe lambing. Digestion of the FecB gene (190 base pairs) with AvaII restriction enzyme resulted in none carrier 190 bp band wild type in...

Ile-de-France ewes had high plasma progesterone concentrations during early summer-late winter. Gentile-di-Puglia ewes had high progesterone values during the winter-spring-summer period but during autumn progesterone values were very low and oestrous behaviour was not displayed. The comparison with Ile-de-France ewes indicates that a phase shift occurs in the annual ovarian activity in ewes of...

This paper concerns the likely origin of three mutations with large effects on ovulation rate identified in the Belclare and Cambridge sheep breeds; two in the BMP15 gene (FecX(G) and FecX(B)) and the third (FecG(H)) in GDF9. All three mutations segregate in Belclare sheep while one, FecX(B), has not been found in the Cambridge. Both Belclare and Cambridge breeds are relatively recently develop...

O NE hundred seventy-nine ewe lambs from a three-breed polyallel cross involving the Willamette, Suffolk and Hampshire breeds were used to study the genetic aspects of fertility. Ewe birth weight, ewe weight at mating and fertility were analyzed in relation to heterosis, general combining ability, maternal effect, reciprocal differences, and the effects of a hormone treatment. Treatment consist...

Lifetime production of first-generation 1/4 and 1/2 Finnsheep crossbred ewes from Rambouillet (R), Targhee (T) and Columbia (C) dams was compared with that from randomly selected purebred R, T and C ewes. All 1,190 ewes, representing nine breed groups, were managed under range conditions and mated annually to Suffolk rams. Lifetime production was evaluated as the total lamb and total wool produ...

The present study was performed to study the effect of inbreeding on the pre-weaning growth traits including the birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), average daily gain (ADG), Kleiber ratio (KR) and lamb survival from birth to weaning (SUR) in Baluchi, Iran-Black and Zandi sheep. Significant positive inbreeding trends were found only for Baluchi and Iran-Black breeds as 0.038 and 0.278, resp...