Objective The presence of different missense mutations in sheep breeds have shown that the bone morphogenetic protein receptor 1B (BMPR1B), bone morphogenetic protein 15 (BMP15) and growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9) genes play a vital role in ovulation rate and prolificacy in ewes. Therefore, the present study investigates BMPR1B, BMP15 and GDF9 genes mutations in prolific ewes of Iranian ...

Crossbreeding of four Iranian fat-tailed sheep breeds, namely Kurdi (K), Chaal (C), Afshari (A) and Sanjabi (S) was carried out to determine the ram breed effects on productivity of Kurdi fat-tailed ewes (K) under extensive production system. A total of 475 Kurdi ewes were mated to 24 rams from the above four breeds resulting in 454 lambs. Ram breed had a significant influence on early growth t...

The objective of this study was to evaluate non-genetic factors affecting longevity and survival of Guilan sheep from birth to yearling. Longevity and survival records of 41037 lambs born from 496 rams and 10256 ewes of Guilan sheep were analyzed using linear and Weibull models. Results indicated that the overall mean of longevity was 1260.84 days. The fixed effects of flock, dam age, sex, year...

The effect of ephedrine at 0 (E0C0, n = 10), 8 (E8C0, n = 10) and 10 (E10C0, n = 10) mg per kg metabolic body weight or mixture of ephedrine/caffeine, at doses of 8 mg ephedrine/80 mg caffeine (E8C80, n = 10), or 10 mg ephedrine/100 mg caffeine (E10C100, n = 7), per kg metabolic body weight on body composition of feedlot Mehraban ram lambs (8-month-old) was studied. The lambs were fed for 95 da...