Search results for " Sheep."
showing 10 items of 96 documents
Prion protein gene frequencies in three Sicilian dairy sheep populations
2008
The objective of this paper was to investigate the prion protein (PrP) genotype and haplotype frequencies in three Sicilian dairy sheep populations. The three populations were: (1) 1096 Valle del Belice animals, (2) 1143 Comisana animals, and (3) 1771 individuals from 5 flocks with scrapie outbreaks, in which the animals were crossbreds derived from indigenous Sicilian dairy breeds. PrP genotypes are described for the three codons 136 (Alanine or Valine; A, V), 154 (Histidine or Arginine; H, R), and 171 (Glutamine, Arginine or Histidine; Q, R, H) which represent polymorphisms known to be linked with scrapie susceptibility. The Valle del Belice haplotype frequencies were 32.3% ARR, 6.5% AHQ,…
Study of β-defensin polymorphisms in Valle del Belice dairy sheep
2009
The aim of this work was to sequence the exons of β-defensin 1 and 2 genes (SBD1 and SBD2) in Valle del Belice dairy sheep in order to identify polymorphisms. The study was conducted on 60 samples from three flocks. Six SNPs were identified: two in SBD1 and four in SBD2. Both genes consist of two exons and one intron. In SBD1 gene, SNPs were found only in the exon 2, whereas in SBD2, SNPs were detected in both exons. In both genes, SNPs were located in the coding regions and in the 3'-UTR. The SNP in SBD2 located at position 1659 determined a change in the protein sequence. Further studies will be necessary to investigate if the amino acid change modifies the biological function of the…
Genome-wide association study for milk production traits in an economically important local dairy sheep breed
2021
In this study, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for five milk production traits in the Valle del Belice sheep. Repeated measurements for milk yield (MY), fat percentage and yield (F% and FY) and protein percentage and yield (P% and PY) on 481 ewes, were available for the analysis. The animals were genotyped using the Illumina Ovine 50k BeadChip. Weighted deregressed breeding values (DEBVw) were used as phenotypes for GWAS analysis. A total of 23 genome-wide significant SNPs were identified: 3 associated with MY, 9 with FY, and 11 with P%. Several SNPs mapped within known candidate genes or previously reported QTL for milk production traits in livestock species. Additional…
Utilization of mulberry leaves (Morus latifolia cv. Kokusou 21) in diets for dairy ewes
2009
Twelve Valle del Belice lactating ewes were divided into three homogeneous groups and fed ad libitum the following diets in a 3 x 3 Latin square design: sulla hay (HA); sulla hay and Mulberry leaves (M. leaves) (HM); M. leaves (MU). DM intake of MU ewes was lower than that of HM ewes, with an intermediate level for HA ewes. HM ewes showed to prefer M. leaves to hay, but their need to balance the high protein and low NDF contents of M. leaves by eating hay also emerged. Milk yield increased as the dietary content of M. leaves increased- In addition, the use of HM and MU diets led to higher milk fat and urea content in comparison with the HA diet. The results confirmed that M. leaves are a su…
Immunohistochemical expression and distribution of orexin, orphanin and leptin in the major salivary glands of some mammals
2012
Abstract: The aim of the study was to assess the involvement of apoptotic factors, cytokeratins and metalloproteinase- 9 in the histogenesis of both Epithelialized Gingival Lesions (EGL) and Periapical Lesions (PAL). 55 consecutive patients, 30 with PAL and 25 with EGL, were selected for the study after clinical and radiological examinations. The PAL patients had severe periapical lesions and tooth decay with exposure of the pulp chamber. All PAL and EGL biopsies were surgically extracted, fixed in 10% buffered formalin, and processed for routine light microscopy. Ten biopsies of each category were processed for immunohistochemistry (IHC). Serial paraffin sections were stained by IHC with a…
Genome wide linkage disequilibrium and genetic structure in Sicilian dairy sheep breeds
2014
Background The recent availability of sheep genome-wide SNP panels allows providing background information concerning genome structure in domestic animals. The aim of this work was to investigate the patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD), the genetic diversity and population structure in Valle del Belice, Comisana, and Pinzirita dairy sheep breeds using the Illumina Ovine SNP50K Genotyping array. Results Average r2 between adjacent SNPs across all chromosomes was 0.155 ± 0.204 for Valle del Belice, 0.156 ± 0.208 for Comisana, and 0.128 ± 0.188 for Pinzirita breeds, and some variations in LD value across chromosomes were observed, in particular for Valle del Belice and Comisana breeds. Ave…
Detection of genomic regions underlying milk production traits in Valle del Belice dairy sheep using regional heritability mapping
2021
The aim of this study was to identify genomic regions underlying milk production traits in the Valle del Belice dairy sheep using regional heritability mapping (RHM). Repeated measurements for milk yield (MY), fat percentage and yield (F% and FY) and protein percentage and yield (P% and PY), collected over a period of six years (2006-2012) on 481 Valle del Belice ewes, were used for the analysis. Animals were genotyped with the Illumina 50k SNP chip. Variance components, heritabilities, and repeatability within and across lactations were estimated, fitting parity, litter size, season of lambing, and fortnights in milk, as fixed; and additive genetic, permanent environment within and across …
Estimation of genetic and phenotypic parameters for bacteriological status of the udder,somatic cell score,and milk yield in dairy sheep using a thre…
2013
Abstract The objective of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters for infection status (INF), as indicator of mastitis, SCS (i.e., log-transformed SCC), and milk yield (MY), by using a Gibbs sampling algorithm. The data comprised 17,843 test-day records of 2040 ewes. The pedigree file included 2948 animals. A bivariate variance component analysis was performed using the TM software. Fixed effects considered in the analysis were litter size, parity, flock by test-day interaction, year by season of lambing interaction, and stage of lactation; whereas the animal, and the permanent environmental effect within and across lactations were considered as random as well as the error. Flat p…
Genome-wide analysis in endangered populations: a case study in Barbaresca sheep
2017
Analysis of genomic data is becoming increasingly common in the livestock industry and the findings have been an invaluable resource for effective management of breeding programs in small and endangered populations. In this paper, with the goal of highlighting the potential of genomic analysis for small and endangered populations, genome-wide levels of linkage disequilibrium, measured as the squared correlation coefficient of allele frequencies at a pair of loci, effective population size, runs of homozygosity (ROH) and genetic diversity parameters, were estimated in Barbaresca sheep using Illumina OvineSNP50K array data. Moreover, the breed's genetic structure and its relationship with oth…
GeneticParameters for Milk Somatic Cell Score and Relationships with Production Traits in Primparous Dairy Sheep
2007
A total of 13,066 first-lactation test-day records of 2,277 Valle del Belice ewes from 17 flocks were used to estimate genetic parameters for somatic cell scores (SCS) and milk production traits, using a repeatability test-day animal model. Heritability estimates were low and ranged from 0.09 to 0.14 for milk, fat, and protein yields, and contents. For SCS, the heritability of 0.14 was relatively high. The repeatabilities were moderate and ranged from 0.29 to 0.47 for milk production traits. The repeatability for SCS was 0.36. Flock-test-day explained a large proportion of the variation for milk production traits, but it did not have a big effect on SCS. The genetic correlations of fat and …