Fat-tailed Breeds Research Articles

History and genetic diversity of African sheep: Contrasting phenotypic and genomic diversity.

Domesticated sheep have adapted to contrasting and extreme environments and continue to play important roles in local community-based economies throughout Africa. Here we review the Neolithic migrations of thin-tailed sheep and the later introductions of fat-tailed sheep into eastern Africa. According to contemporary pictorial evidence, the latter occurred in Egypt not before the Ptolemaic period (305-25 BCE). We further describe the more recent history of sheep in Egypt, the Maghreb, west and central Africa, central-east Africa, and southern Africa. We also present a comprehensive molecular survey based on the analysis of 50 K SNP genotypes for 59 African breeds contributed by several laboratories. We propose that gene flow and import of fat-tailed sheep have partially overwritten the diversity profile created by the initial migration. We found a genetic contrast between sheep north and south of the Sahara and a west-east contrast of thin- and fat-tailed sheep. There is no close relationship between African and central and east Asian fat-tailed breeds, whereas we observe within Africa only a modest effect of tail types on breed relationships.

Эффективность лактулозусодержащей добавки при выращивании баранчиков

Purpose. To study lactulose-containing prebiotic feed additives in feeding Kalmyk fat-tailed rams, evaluate their effect on growth and development indicators, and determine the physiological state of animals when they are used. Materials and Methods. LLC "Baska" of Yustinsky district of the Republic of Kalmykia was chosen for the experiment. The experimental part of the work was conducted on 45 rams of Kalmyk fat-tailed breed, selected according to the principle of pair-analogs in three groups of 15 animals each. The animals in the first group (control group) received general economic ration (OR); the second group – OR + feed additive "Lactumin-1" at a dose of 0.6% of the weight of concentrates; the third group – OR + feed additive "LactuSuper" at a dose of 0.5% of the weight of concentrates. The conditions of the experimental young animals were the same for all experimental groups and corresponded to the generally accepted zootechnical and veterinary norm. The study of blood parameters was carried out in the conditions of Complex Analytical Laboratory of VRIMMP (Volgograd) using analyzers URiT-3020 Vet Plus (China) and URiT-800 Vet (China), lysozyme, bactericidal and phagocytic activity – using the methods of Dorofeychuk V.G. and Fedyuk V.V. In order to study the effect of lactulose-containing feed additives on the live weight of experimental animals, the rams were individually weighed every 30-31 days. The results obtained during the experiment and laboratory conditions were processed using mathematical and statistical methods by calculating the reliability criterion (Student-Fisher method) in the Statistica 10.0 program. Results. Addition of lactulose-containing additives to the diet had a positive effect on blood parameters, contributed to the improvement of the natural immunity of animals and an increase in live weight: at the age of 4 months the content of total protein in the rams blood of I and II groups increased by 1.63% (P≥0.95) compared to the control group, lysozyme activity – by 1.4 and 2.7% (P≥0.95), bactericidal – by 0.37 and 1.24%, phagocytic – by 3.39% (P≥0.95) and 4.7% (P≥0.99), live weight – by 4.93% (P≥0 .99) 7.56% (P≥0.999); at the age of 6 months the amount of total protein was greater by 1.63 and 3.29% (P≥0.95), lysozyme activity – by 1.88 and 2.84% (P≥0.95), bactericidal activity – by 0.59 and 1 .42%, phagocytic – by 1.54% (P≥0.95) and 3.98% (P≥0.99), live weight – by 2.39% (P≥0.95) 4.36% (P≥0.99), respectively. Conclusion. Lactulose-containing feed additives had a beneficial effect on blood biochemical parameters, increased the level of natural immunity of animals, and contributed to an increase in meat productivity of rams.

Генетические маркеры мясной продуктивности калмыцкой породы овец

Purpose. Identification of genes that control meat productivity and quality of reproduction of sheep using the example of the Kalmyk fat-tailed breed. Materials and Methods. The following main methods were used in the process of performing the work: analysis, classification, specification, synthesis, generalization, as well as the resources of the search engines PubMed and eLIBRARY. Discussion. The work examines the issues of detecting molecular genetic markers responsible for the breeding value of small ruminants. The genes responsible for meat productivity and methods of their analysis are examined in detail. Conclusion. During the literature review, many candidate genes were identified that correlate with meat productivity, but from this set the more studied ones were identified: BMPR-IV, MSTN, CAPN1, GDF9, CAST, GH.

Meat productivity and interior features of fat-tailed coarse wool lambs in the south-east of Kazakhstan

Increased lamb production in the South-Eastern region of Kazakhstan confirms the economic feasibility of processing young sheep from 7 to 12 months. Unfortunately, domestic literature offers little information on the selection and appropriate use of 4-month-old lambs for this purpose; this accounts for the relevance and both scientific and practical significance of research aimed at increasing the meat productivity of 4-month-old lambs (depending on breed) in the semi-desert zone of the South-Eastern region of Kazakhstan, based on technological developments. The object of the study was lambs of fat-tailed coarse wool breeds: Edilbay, Hissar and Kazakh fat-tailed breeds. The animals were 4 months old and kept from birth in one flock at the Yntykbay farm in Almaty region. Among the three studied breeds, Gissar stands out in terms of carcass weight, slaughter weight, and specific gravity of the meat and carcass. High-quality carcasses were obtained from all groups; the Hissar breed had the yield of 17.5 kg (carcass yield was 78.3%).

Comprehensive Gene Expression Profiling Analysis of Adipose Tissue in Male Individuals from Fat- and Thin-Tailed Sheep Breeds.

It has been shown that tail fat content varies significantly among sheep breeds and plays a significant role in meat quality. Recently, significant efforts have been made to understand the physiological, biochemical, and genomic regulation of fat deposition in sheep tails in order to unravel the mechanisms underlying energy storage and adipose tissue lipid metabolism. RNA-seq has enabled us to provide a high-resolution snapshot of differential gene expression between fat- and thin-tailed sheep breeds. Therefore, three RNA-seq datasets were meta-analyzed for the current work to elucidate the transcriptome profile differences between them. Specifically, we identified hub genes, performed gene ontology (GO) analysis, carried out enrichment analyses of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways, and validated hub genes using machine learning algorithms. This approach revealed a total of 136 meta-genes, 39 of which were not significant in any of the individual studies, indicating the higher statistical power of the meta-analysis. Furthermore, the results derived from the use of machine learning revealed POSTN, K35, SETD4, USP29, ANKRD37, RTN2, PRG4, and LRRC4C as substantial genes that were assigned a higher weight (0.7) than other meta-genes. Among the decision tree models, the Random Forest ones surpassed the others in adipose tissue predictive power fat deposition in fat- and thin-tailed breeds (accuracy > 0.85%). In this regard, combining meta-analyses and machine learning approaches allowed for the identification of three important genes (POSTN, K35, SETD4) related to lipid metabolism, and our findings could help animal breeding strategies optimize fat-tailed breeds' tail sizes.

Comparison of the growth performance between pure Moghani sheep and crosses with Texel or Booroola sheep carrying major genes contributing to muscularity and prolificacy

This study aimed to compare growth performance between Moghani sheep and crossbred lambs resulting from crossbreeding between Moghani pure breed ewes and the lines of rams e.g., Texel Tamlet, Texel Dalzell, Booroola Merino, and Booroola Romney. The first visible phenotypic characteristic was the presence of lean tail in all F1 crossbred lambs, whereas Moghani pure sheep is a well-known large fat-tailed breed. Moreover, the first generation of backcross (BC1) lambs from mating four types of F1 crossbred rams with Moghani pure ewes revealed lean-tailed to short fat-tailed. Comparative results showed that the F1 crossbred lambs had significantly (p < 0.0001) greater birth weight (BW) than the Moghani pure breed lambs. Despite no significant differences observed between Moghani pure breed sheep and its F1 crossbred lambs for body weight at pre-weaning, but F1 crossbred lambs achieved significantly (p < 0.0001) greater body weight after weaning compared to Moghani sheep. The growth performance of BC1 lambs was outperformed than F1 crossbred and Moghani sheep. These results encourage the continuation of the Moghani sheep crossbreeding programs to improve overall lamb growth, particularly post-weaning and to benefit from a better reproductive efficiency by elimination or reduction of the fat tail.

ҚАЗАҚТЫҢ ҚҰЙРЫҚТЫ ҚОЙ ТҰҚЫМЫНЫҢ ӨНІМДІЛІК БЕЛГІЛЕРІМЕН БАЙЛАНЫСҚАН КАНДИДАТ-ГЕНДЕРДІҢ АЛЛЕЛЬДІК ПОЛИМОРФИЗМІ

In recent years, research aimed at developing breeding methods based on the use of DNA markers associated with the level of productivity has become particularly important. The introduction of this technology into the domestic production of mutton is on urgent task of great practical importance for the development of this industry. In this regard, the goal was set to study the polymorphism of the alleles of growth hormone (GH2), insulin-like growth factor (IGF1), myostatin (MSTN), and fatty acid binding protein-4 (FABP4) genes associated with the productivity of Kazakh fat-tailed sheep. Blood samples were used to study animal DNA. The analysis of polymorphism in genes was carried out with the help of test systems that were specially designed to carry out research work in the laboratory of Molecular Bases of Breeding of the All-Russian institute of Animal Husbandry named after L.K. Ernst (Russia). During the study of polymorphic sistems of blood proteins, the degree of differentiation of the genetic structures of the Kazakh fat-tailed breed by alleles and genotypes of polymorphic proteins was determined. As a result of testing, it was revealed that in the population of Kazakh fat-tailed sheep, the GH2 and IGF1 genes are polymorphic and the MSTN and FABP4 genes are monomorphic. Identification of candidate genes associated with signs of meat productivity of the Kazakh fat-tailed breed can be used to develop marker breeding programs, the use of which in practice can significantly improve the efficiency of breeding work.

ЭКСТЕРЬЕРНЫЕ И ПРОДУКТИВНЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ БАРАНЧИКОВ КАЛМЫЦКОЙ КУРДЮЧНОЙ ПОРОДЫ НОВОГО ТИПА

The article presents research in a comparative aspect on the study of the characteristics of growth, development and formation of meat productivity of rams of the original and new types of the Kalmyk fat-tailed breed.

Evaluation of meat quality sheep of the bred Kalmyk fat-tailed breed type

The article presents the results of the analysis of the chemical and amino acid composition of the meat; in general the meat of the experimental group animals was better by 1.02 g/100 g, or 11.12 % by the sum of all essential amino acids compared to the control sample, and consequently the animals of the experimental group exceeded the control sample by 0.99 g/100 g, or 10.25 % by the content of substituted amino acids in the meat of sheep. It can be concluded that the bred type had a positive effect on the live weight of experimental young sheep, the chemical composition of meat and its biological value. The meat of sheep of the bred type is rich in high-grade protein and has an increased content of amino acids, including essential amino acids.

Shedding Light on the Origin of Egyptian Sheep Breeds by Evolutionary Comparison of Mitochondrial D-Loop.

Simple SummaryEgypt is a carrefour between North African Maghreb countries, East Tropical Africa, Arabian Peninsula, and Near East countries including Turkey. The aim of the present work was to describe the genetic relationships between several domestic sheep populations of these regions. All of the present-day Egyptian breeds are coarse woolen and fat-tailed, but archeologists indicate that this tail form was acquired in the Near East later from populations with a thin tail. To test this idea, we used a phylogenetic-derived program to compare the control region of mtDNA of 37 breeds with fat or thin tails. We showed that most breeds seemed to fit with the archeologist hypothesis, whereas one breed indicates a direct migration of a fat-tailed breed from Turkey. Unexpectedly, one of the breeds from South Egypt was strongly linked to the thin-tailed desert breeds of Sudan, raising the question of the events leading to this situation.(1) Background: It has been recognized that the origin of fat-tailed sheep occurred within coarse wool breeds and that this character was introgressed several times into thin-tailed populations. However, no study has investigated this idea for Egyptian breeds using mtDNA analyses. (2) Methods: Using new sequences of the control region, we constructed a database of 467 sequences representing 37 breeds including fat- and thin-tailed ones with 80 Egyptian individuals belonging to six local breeds (Barki, Fallahi, Ossimi, Rahmani, Saidi, Sohagi). The phylogenetic tree obtained with the maximum likelihood method was submitted to the Newick Extra program to count the direct and indirect links between the individuals of each breed. (3) Results: Several Egyptian breeds were strongly connected to “primitive” thin-tailed breeds from Europe, indicating a clear genetic background of the “thin tail” breed type that supports the view of archeologists. In several cases, we suspected Western Asian breeds to be involved in the introgression of the fat tail character. In contrast, the Ossimi breed showed a high affinity to a fat-tailed breed of Western Asia, suggesting a direct migration and no thin tail ancestors. The Saidi is unique as our analyses revealed its strong connection with thin-tailed Sudanese breeds.

SNP Genotyping Characterizes the Genome Composition of the New Baisary Fat-Tailed Sheep Breed.

Simple SummaryHistorically, sheep breeding has played a key role in Kazakhstan. At present, due to the population’s increasing meat consumption, there is a high interest in the distribution of sheep breeds of different productivity levels. In our study, we describe the genetic structure and results of population analysis of a new breed called Baisary, which belongs to the meat-fat breeds and has favorable phenotypic traits. We reveal that this breed is genetically differentiated from its ancestors and other breeds, and shortly, it could be registered as a separate breed. This study helps with understanding the gene pool and genetic diversity of sheep breeds in Kazakhstan and should increase farmers’ interest in Baisary sheep.Lamb meat has become increasingly popular in several nations during the last few decades, especially in Kazakhstan. Due to the rising demand for lamb meat, our sheep breeders developed a new fat-tailed sheep and named the breed Baisary. Animals of the Baisary breed are characterized by a large physique, strong constitution, stretched body, deep and wide chest, medium or large-sized fat tail, long legs (height at the withers of adult rams 85–100 cm, sheep 75–90 cm), long lanceolate ears and strong hooves. Lambs of the Baisary breed surpass their peers of the original parent breeds by 15–20% in live weight at the weaning period. To characterize the genetic structure of Baisary sheep and compare it with the ancestral breeds, we genotyped 247 individuals from five sheep breeds with Ovine SNP50K. The estimated private allelic richness ranged from 0.0030 to 0.0047, with the minimum and maximum provided by the Gissar (Giss1) and Kazakh meat-wool breeds, respectively. The highest and lowest FIS values, meanwhile, were observed in the Afghan fat-tailed population and Baisary sheep, respectively. The calculated inbreeding coefficient showed that Edilbay and Baisary sheep have excess heterozygosity. According to principal components analysis, Baisary are close to Gissar populations, the Afghan fat-tailed breed and Edilbay sheep. These results were consistent with the Admixture and phylogenetic analysis. Overall, our results indicated that Baisary sheep differ genetically from their progenitors.

A Search for Eurasian Sheep Relationships: Genomic Assessment of the Autochthonous Sheep Breeds in Russia and the Persian Plateau

Genomic assessment of local sheep breeds is relevant to the reconstruction of post-domestication migrations and to filling in gaps in the developmental history and contemporary phylogeographic-differentiation patterns in Eurasia. In this study, we aimed to reveal possible genetic relationships between local sheep breeds in Russia and the Persian Highlands (Iran) based on high-density SNP genotypes. All samples (n = 395) from 11 Iranian and 10 Russian sheep breeds were genotyped by using the Ovine Infinium HD BeadChip (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA). Principal Component Analysis, maximum-likelihood assessment, and Neighbor-Net graph analysis demonstrated a clear differentiation between Russian sheep breeds of European ancestry from the Iranian local cluster and Russian breeds of Asian origin. Admixture analysis revealed a shared ancestral background, which was detected in several Iranian-local and Russian-local fat-tailed coarse-wool sheep breeds. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the pattern of historic admixture, which is present in the genomes of many Eurasian sheep breeds.

Hitchhiking Mapping of Candidate Regions Associated with Fat Deposition in Iranian Thin and Fat Tail Sheep Breeds Suggests New Insights into Molecular Aspects of Fat Tail Selection.

Simple SummaryFatness-related traits are economically very important in sheep production and are associated with serious diseases in humans. Using a denser set of SNP markers and a variety of statistical approaches, our results were able to refine the regions associated with fat deposition and to suggest new insights into molecular aspects of fat tail selection. These results may provide a strong foundation for studying the regulation of fat deposition in sheep and do offer hope that the causal mutations and the mode of inheritance of this trait will soon be discovered by further investigation.The fat tail is a phenotype that divides indigenous Iranian sheep genetic resources into two major groups. The objective of the present study is to refine the map location of candidate regions associated with fat deposition, obtained via two separate whole genome scans contrasting thin and fat tail breeds, and to determine the nature of the selection occurring in these regions using a hitchhiking approach. Zel (thin tail) and Lori-Bakhtiari (fat tail) breed samples that had previously been run on the Illumina Ovine 50 k BeadChip, were genotyped with a denser set of SNPs in the three candidate regions using a Sequenom Mass ARRAY platform. Statistical tests were then performed using different and complementary methods based on either site frequency (FST and Median homozygosity) or haplotype (iHS and XP-EHH). The results from candidate regions on chromosome 5 and X revealed clear evidence of selection with the derived haplotypes that was consistent with selection to near fixation for the haplotypes affecting fat tail size in the fat tail breed. An analysis of the candidate region on chromosome 7 indicated that selection differentiated the beneficial alleles between breeds and homozygosity has increased in the thin tail breed which also had the ancestral haplotype. These results enabled us to confirm the signature of selection in these regions and refine the critical intervals from 113 kb, 201 kb, and 2831 kb to 28 kb, 142 kb, and 1006 kb on chromosome 5, 7, and X respectively. These regions contain several genes associated with fat metabolism or developmental processes consisting of TCF7 and PPP2CA (OAR5), PTGDR and NID2 (OAR7), AR, EBP, CACNA1F, HSD17B10, SLC35A2, BMP15, WDR13, and RBM3 (OAR X), and each of which could potentially be the actual target of selection. The study of core haplotypes alleles in our regions of interest also supported the hypothesis that the first domesticated sheep were thin tailed, and that fat tail animals were developed later. Overall, our results provide a comprehensive assessment of how and where selection has affected the patterns of variation in candidate regions associated with fat deposition in thin and fat tail sheep breeds.

Genome-wide identification of copy number variation and association with fat deposition in thin and fat-tailed sheep breeds

Copy number variants (CNVs) are a type of genetic polymorphism which contribute to phenotypic variation in several species, including livestock. In this study, we used genomic data of 192 animals from 3 Iranian sheep breeds including 96 Baluchi sheep and 47 Lori-Bakhtiari sheep as fat-tailed breeds and 47 Zel sheep as thin-tailed sheep breed genotyped with Illumina OvineSNP50K Beadchip arrays. Also, for association test, 70 samples of Valle del Belice sheep were added to the association test as thin-tailed sheep breed. PennCNV and CNVRuler software were, respectively, used to study the copy number variation and genomic association analyses. We detected 573 and 242 CNVs in the fat and thin tailed breeds, respectively. In terms of CNV regions (CNVRs), these represented 328 and 187 CNVRs that were within or overlapping with 790 known Ovine genes. The CNVRs covered approximately 73.85 Mb of the sheep genome with average length 146.88 kb, and corresponded to 2.6% of the autosomal genome sequence. Five CNVRs were randomly chosen for validation, of which 4 were experimentally confirmed using Real time qPCR. Functional enrichment analysis showed that genes harbouring CNVs in thin-tailed sheep were involved in the adaptive immune response, regulation of reactive oxygen species biosynthetic process and response to starvation. In fat-tailed breeds these genes were involved in cellular protein modification process, regulation of heart rate, intestinal absorption, olfactory receptor activity and ATP binding. Association test identified one copy gained CNVR on chromosomes 6 harbouring two protein-coding genes HGFAC and LRPAP1. Our findings provide information about genomic structural changes and their association to the interested traits including fat deposition and environmental compatibility in sheep.

Carcass and Meat Quality of Lambs from Thin-Tailed and Fat-Tailed Breeds at Five Different Slaughter Weights

Abstract In lamb production, deciding the optimal slaughter weight (SW) has great importance on product quality. The aim of the study was to determine the optimum SW for lambs from a thin-tailed breed (Kivircik) and a fat-tailed breed (Kangal Akkaraman) in order to get high-quality meat and carcass. Kivircik (n=60) and Kangal Akkaraman (n=59) lambs were allotted to five SW groups (20, 28, 36, 44 and 52 kg). In Kivircik lambs, backfat thickness and fatness score gradually increased in parallel with the increase in SW, while the increase in the tail fat and kidney knob and channel fat (KKCF) proportions were observed by up to 36 kg. In Kangal Akkaraman lambs, evident increases in fatness parameters, except tail fat proportion, were observed when the SW increased from 44 kg to 52 kg. Meat pH, Warner Bratzler shear force (WBSF) and cooking loss values were not influenced by SW in lambs of both breeds. As SW increased in Kivircik lambs, there was a significant decrease in meat lightness and an increase in yellowness. In Kangal Akkaraman breed, lambs slaughtered at 20 kg and 28 kg had higher L* values, and lower a* and C* values than those of other SW groups. In Kivircik lambs, the total PUFA proportion and the ΣPUFA/ ΣSFA ratio were lower in SW-44 and SW-52 groups than those of SW-20 and SW-28 groups. Decreases of these parameters were in SW-52 group in Kangal Akkaraman lambs. In meat samples of both breeds, SW-52 groups had a lower Σn-3 proportion and a higher Σn-6 / Σn-3 ratio than other SW groups. In Kivircik lambs, the panellists evaluated the meat of SW-20 and SW-28 groups as tender compared to those in SW-44 and SW-52 groups. In Kangal Akkaraman breed, flavour intensity in the meat of SW-52 lambs was higher than those of SW-20 and SW-28 groups. Results of the study indicate that slaughtering of lambs at 20 kg and 28 kg in both breeds provided better meat quality but caused lower carcass weight. Therefore, slaughtering Kivircik and Kangal Akkaraman lambs at 20 kg and 28 kg live weight might be recommended especially to farmers, who aim to obtain high-quality lamb meat. In this case, it should not be ignored that the amount of meat produced will be less. On the other hand, slaughtering lambs at about 44 kg weight could be recommended to farmers, who aimed to obtain as much quality lamb carcasses as possible without any negative influence on meat quality.

PSVIII-1 Genetic characteristics of Karachaev sheep inferred from genome-wide SNP analysis

Abstract Karachaev sheep is a fat-tailed breed from North-Caucasus, Russia. It has good adaptability to local environments and excellent meat quality. The aim of our study was to investigate genetic characteristics of Karachaev sheep and its relationship with other fat-tailed breeds. Samples of Karachaev (n = 22), Lezgin (n = 21), Edilbai (n = 21), Karakul (n = 21), Alai (n = 20), and Gissar (n = 20) breeds were genotyped using Ovine HD BeadChip. For phylogenetic analyses, we additionally included 50K genotypes of Afshari, Awassi, Barki, Chios, Cyprus Fat-Tailed, and Red Maasai breeds. PLINK 1.9 was used for quality control and performing PCA. Genetic diversity parameters were calculated in R package diveRsity. Historical effective population size (Ne) was estimated using SNeP 1.1. Cluster analysis was conducted in Admixture 1.3. TreeMix tree was constructed in TreeMix 1.13. Genetic diversity indices (observed and expected heterozygosity, allelic richness) were highest in Karachaev and Lezgin breeds. Karachaev sheep was phylogenetically closer to Lezgin and Edilbai breeds. Trends in historical Ne were very similar for these breeds. We observed the increased decline in Ne around 20–25 generations ago (which corresponds to 1940s) that can be associated with deportation of Karachaev people to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in 1943, which resulted in lost almost all of its livestock. TreeMix analysis allowing one migration event revealed gene flow from Karakul to Karachaev/Lezgin nod. Admixture analysis showed the presence in Karachaev sheep of Edilbai and Karakul specific genomic components (~80 and ~20%, respectively). Our study allow suggest that Karachaev breed was extinct during World War II and then was restored in 1960s after Karachaev people returned to their land. It originated from the sheep they brought from Central Asia (Edilbai), and was improved by Karakul breed and local sheep. This work was supported by RSF No. 21-46-00001 (genotyping) and the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education No. 0445-2019-0024 (expedition studies).

Origin and population structure of Brazilian hair sheep breeds.

Brazilian hair sheep constitute a genetic diversity hotspot. These animals are found in the harsh environments of the Brazilian Northwest (semi-arid) region. Genotypes (50K SNP chip) from seven Brazilian sheep breeds (five hair and two coarse wool types) and 87 worldwide breeds were used to test for population structure, admixture and genetic diversity. Moreover, phylogenetic trees evaluating migration events between genetic groups were built. Brazilian Somali, a fat-tailed breed, had a close relationship with East African breeds and clustered distinctly from other Brazilian breeds. Brazilian Blackbelly and Barbados Blackbelly had a close relationship. The Morada Nova breed did not show close relationships with European or African breeds, revealing a single migration event from an Algerian hair breed. Brazilian Fat-tail and Morada Nova share a common ancestor, but the former showed introgressions from Brazilian Somali and Afrikaner breeds, explaining the fat-tail phenotype. The Santa Inês breed received a substantial contribution from Brazilian Bergamasca and showed an admixed origin with recent introgressions from other breeds, mainly from Suffolk. Furthermore, Brazilian Somali and Brazilian Fat-tail are the most endangered sheep genetic resources in Brazil and should be the focus for ex situ conservation programs. In conclusion, Brazilian hair sheep show an African origin and are characterized by diverse genetic composition, reinforcing the need for conservation of these genetic resources, and at the same time, this highly diverse group has variability that can be used in breeding programs.

Incidence of Postpartum Prepubic Tendon Rupture and Abdominal Herniation in Fat-Tail Ewe

Occasionally herniation of abdominal wall may occur in ewe due to rupture of Prepubic tendon and muscles of abdominal walls during the last month of pregnancy. Subsequently, different parts of the gastrointestinal tract get out of their original location. Only one (0.2%) out of 500 ewes Shal fat-tail breed suffered from herniation due to the rupture of Prepubic tendon in Amin Abad research institution of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tehran, Tehran-Iran. It was 7 years old. It was lambed normally for four times. The ewe delivered normally without any sign of dystocia in the last lambing. It was suffered due to Prepubic tendon rupture after 8 days of parturition. In abdominal exam, the signs of herniation were cleared typically. The herniation could be rejected in abdominal exam. This is the first report of rupture of Prepubic tendon and herniation of abdominal wall in ewe after parturition in Iran. It can be due to the weakness of abdominal wall muscles in aged ewes.

Polymorphism and Comparative Expression Analysis of THRSP Gene in Fat-Tailed and Thin-Tailed Sheep Breeds

Polymorphism and Comparative Expression Analysis of THRSP Gene in Fat-Tailed and Thin-Tailed Sheep Breeds

ЖИВАЯ МАССА И ШЕРСТНАЯ ПРОДУКТИВНОСТЬ ОВЕЦ КАЗАХСКОЙ КУРДЮЧНОЙ ПОРОДЫ РАЗНОЙ МАСТИ

The article considers the indicators of live weight and shearing of wool of sheep-producers and queens of diff erent colors of the Kazakh fat-tailed sheep breed.