Eighteen spring-born Columbia ram, wether, and zeranol-implanted ram lambs were examined to determine the influence of castration or zeranol implantation on collagen characteristics of skin, fell, and epimysium and possible relationships between collagen properties of each tissue and difficulty of pelt removal. Pelt removal force was lower in wethers than in rams (P < .05) and intermediate for ...

Two studies were conducted to evaluate the relationship between serving capacity scores and breeding performance of rams. The first study was conducted to determine whether rams with above or below mean serving capacity scores could perform equally in greater and lesser breeding intensity, single-sire mating schemes. The second study was conducted to determine whether rams with above and below ...

BACKGROUND Predicting the ability of rams to detect, mate and fertilise ewes in oestrus accurately is certainly difficult; however, tests based on clinical examinations have been performed to assess the overall potential capacity of rams to serve and impregnate ewes. Clinical examinations for breeding soundness evaluation were carried out in 897 Rasa Aragonesa (RA) rams from 35 flocks in North-...

Effects of the opiate agonist, morphine, and antagonist, naloxone, on LH release, courtship behavior and ejaculation frequency of mature, sexually active or sexually inactive rams were investigated. Plasma LH concentrations were monitored from blood samples collected every 15 min for 10 hr (0800 to 1800 hr) from eight rams that were isolated from or in contact with estrous females. Plasma LH co...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of rilpivirine resistance-associated mutations (RAMs) in the USA, and their effect on phenotypic susceptibility to rilpivirine and etravirine, was evaluated in clinical samples from HIV-1-infected patients. METHODS In total, 15,991 samples submitted to Monogram Biosciences (South San Francisco, CA, USA) for routine resistance testing between January 2010 and June 201...

This study investigated the effect of a short term (2 weeks) supplementary feeding on sexual behavior traits of Ile-de-France rams during late spring. Ten adult rams were fed a basal diet composed of 0.5 kg of straw, 0.8 kg of hay, 0.27 kg of barley, 0.05 kg of molasses and 0.01 kg of a mineral and vitamins supplement per day providing approximately the neat energy for maintenance according to ...

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of melatonin implantation on basic testicular characteristics and reproductive performance of Kivircik and Charollais rams and ewes during the nonbreeding season. In this study, 8 Kivircik and 6 Charollais rams were used. Rams were implanted with 54 mg melatonin according to the manufacturer’s instructions. At melatonin implantation and at ram...

Alternatives to time-consuming, laborious individual serving capacity tests (ISCT) are needed to classify ram sexual behavior. The objective of study 1 was to evaluate the relationship between the first 3-ram cohort test (COSCT) scores and the mean of 5 ISCT scores. The objective of study 2 was to determine whether 1 or 2 additional COSCT improved the ability to predict ISCT scores. For study 1...

Previous research has shown that the proportion of seasonal anoestrous ewes that ovulate in response to the introduction of rams ('ram effect') is dependent upon pheromonal and sexual behavioural stimuli emitted by the rams. Close contact with oestrous ewes is likely to increase the rams' libido and level of testosterone secretion, which in turn has been suggested to positively influence the pr...