The melanocortin receptor 1 (MC1R) plays a central role in regulation of animal coat color formation. In this study, we sequenced the complete coding region and parts of the 5'- and 3'-untranslated regions of the MC1R gene in Chinese sheep with completely white (Large-tailed Han sheep), black (Minxian Black-fur sheep), and brown coat colors (Kazakh Fat-Rumped sheep). The results showed five sin...

I. Palekar AG, Tate SS, Meister A: Formation of 5-oxoproline from glutathione in erythrocytes by the -y-glutamyl transpeptidase cyclotransferase pathway. Proc NatI Acad Sci USA 71:293, 1974 2. Azzopardi 0, Jayle MF: Activite glutamyltransferase dans Ia membrane du globule rouge humain. Biochim Biophys Acta 389:339, 1975 3. Srivastava 5K, Awasthi YC, Miller SP, Yoshida A, Beutler E: Studies on -...

The aim of the study was to determine the effects of various doses of injected Se on the physiological responses of sheep to heat load. Fifteen 9-mo-old Australian Merino wethers (mean BW = 27.2 ± 2.1 kg) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments: 0 (control), 0.5, and 5 mg of Se, which was administered as a subcutaneous sodium selenate injection (5 mg/mL Se) on d 1, 8, and 15 of exposure to ...

High glycine-tyrosine proteins (HGTPs), also known as keratin-associated proteins (KAPs), play a key role in the major structures and mechanical properties of wool fiber. Sheep HGTPs consist of three multigene families: KAP6, KAP7, and KAP8 genes. Polymorphisms of these three genes have been proposed to have important effects on wool fiber traits. The aim of the present study was to identify po...

Merino sheep in Thornveld, Dorper sheep and Angora goats in inland Valley Bushveld, Angora goats and Boer goats in Valley Bushveld on the coastal plateau, and springbok, Antidorcas marsupialis, and black wildebeest, Connochaetes gnou, in Karroid Mountainveld, all in the Eastern Cape Province, were examined for the larvae of nasal bot flies. The sheep and goats were infested with the larvae of O...

Forty-two 7-mo-old Australian Merino wethers were used in a 50-d trial to investigate the effects of Se and vitamin E on the performance and physiological responses of heat-stressed sheep. Sheep were exposed to thermoneutral conditions (maximum = 24°C and minimum = 20°C) for 28 d followed by heat (maximum = 38°C and minimum = 28°C) for 22 d. Hot conditions were imposed between 0700 and 1800 h. ...

In sheep, susceptibility to scrapie is associated with the prion protein (PrP) gene polymorphism. In this study the association between selected growth traits (daily weight gain from birth to weaning and in farm fattening performance test, as well as body weight at one and two years) and PrP genotypes ARR/ARR, ARR/XXX and XXX/XXX (XXX representing AHQ, ARQ, ARH or VRQ) has been investigated in ...

Resistance to natural infections of Haemonchus contortus (wireworm) was studied in Merino sheep. From February 1995 to July 1996 data were collected from the OTK Merino Stud on the farm Wildebeesfontein near Hendrina in Mpumalanga province. From March 1998 to January 2000 another Merino flock at Irene in Gauteng province was included in the study. In both cases, 50 randomly-chosen animals from ...

The ovine CD4 cDNA sequence from four sheep sources (Australian Merino, Indonesian Thin Tail, Canadian cross bred, Prealpes du sud) predicts a protein of 455 residues with position 130 in the V2 domain exhibiting a W instead of C suggesting that, like the white whale, dog and cat sequences, sheep CD4 contains only two disulphide bonds. The sequence shows 73% amino acid identity and 83% nucleoti...

The development of quality labels for different lamb meats makes necessary to implement analytical methodologies to guarantee consumers the origin of the products. Eighty single birth male lambs from five Southern Spain sheep breeds (Grazalema Merino, Churra Lebrijana, Spanish Merino, Montesina and Segureña) were selected for the study and fed according to their traditional production system (w...