Evaluation of growth rates and resistance to nematodes of Deccani and Bannur lambs and their crosses with Garole

Sheep rearing is a traditional occupation of about 85 000 shepherd families on the Deccan plateau in theMaharashtra State of India. They rear Deccani (D) sheep which usually bear only single lambs. Prolificacy is animportant trait for the efficiency of meat producing sheep. It was decided to evaluate and utilize Indian sheepgenetic resources with a view to improving the efficiency of sheep production on the Deccan plateau. Acrossbreeding experiment was conducted over 4 years, using rams of the D, Bannur (B) and Garole (G) breeds andD and B ewes with the aim of developing recommendations for the appropriate breed combination of a likelycomposite. It was found that crossing with G reduces live weight and growth rates significantly compared with Dbut lambs sired by G rams were more resistant to naturally acquired gastro-intestinal nematode infections and toartificial challenge withHaemonchus contortusthan those sired by D or B rams. The G breed, being from ahumid environment is, however, not adapted to the semi-arid Deccan plateau. The higher productivity (in terms ofweight of lamb weaned) of twin-bearing ewes compared with those bearing singles was evident even in extensiverearing conditions. The finding of increased resistance to gastro-intestinal nematodes in the G breed, which alsocarries a major gene for prolificacy, highlights the potential for inclusion of G in a composite breed. Negative effectson growth and survival from inclusion of the Garole need to be carefully managed

Lamb production by FecB heterozygous carrier and non-carrier ewes in smallholder flocks in Maharashtra State of India

A breeding program for the introgression of the FecB (Booroola) prolificacy gene from the small Garole breed into the Deccani breed and a composite has been established at the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) at Phaltan in the dry monsoonal climate of southern Maharashtra State of India. The new crossbred type with only Deccani and Garole breeds was termed 'Fecund Deccani' (FD) and the type which also comprised Bannur and/or Awassi breeds was termed 'Fecund Composite' (FC) (Nimbkar et al., 2002). Nimbkar (2006) reported that one copy of the FecB gene increased litter size per ewe conceived by 0.37 lambs and per ewe lambing by 0.64 lambs in Deccani and crossbred ewes at NARI. The objective of this program is to increase the efficiency and profitability of lamb production in smallholder flocks in this Deccan plateau region. The FecB gene was introduced into local smallholder flocks of Deccani sheep through introduction of heterozygous rams, artificial insemination using semen of heterozygous and homozygous rams and introduction of heterozygous crossbred ewes. Rams and ewes of both FD and FC types were used for introduction. This paper presents preliminary results of the number of lambs born and weaned per ewe lambing for heterozygous and non-carrier ewes introduced into or produced in those smallholder flocks

Reinterpretation of LHC results for new physics: status and recommendations after run 2

We report on the status of efforts to improve the reinterpretation of searches and measurements at the LHC in terms of models for new physics, in the context of the LHC Reinterpretation Forum. We detail current experimental offerings in direct searches for new particles, measurements, technical implementations and Open Data, and provide a set of recommendations for further improving the presentation of LHC results in order to better enable reinterpretation in the future. We also provide a brief description of existing software reinterpretation frameworks and recent global analyses of new physics that make use of the current data