Body condition status at mating affects gestation length, offspring yield and return rate in ewes

WOS: 000435180900002The present study was planned to determine the effect of ewe body condition score (BCS) and parities on fertility, return rate, gestation length, fecundity, litter size and lamb birth weight. Data were collected from 284 heads of ewes with first to fifth parity and raised at a state farm for three consecutive (2002-2004) years. Teaser rams were used to monitor estrus twice daily in the morning and in the evening from September to October. BCSs and body weights (BWs) were recorded at mating and postpartum. The ewes, at mating time in breeding season and within first 6 h after the expulsion of fetal membranes, were divided into four groups on the basis of their BCS: thin (BCS = = 4.5; n = 20; 17). BCSs and BWs of ewes at postpartum were highly correlated with lamb birth weight (R = 0.486, P < 0.01, and R = 0.130, P < 0.05, respectively). BCSs and BWs of ewes at postpartum had positive effects on lamb birth weight (Y = 3.43 +/- 0.10 + 0.130 + 0.047 ewe body condition score (EBCS), P < 0.01; Y = 2.92 +/- 0.42 + 0.018 + 0.009 ewe body weight (EBW), P < 0.05 kg of lamb birth weight per BCS and kilogram of ewe live weight, respectively). The fertility rate, litter size and fecundity were higher in the medium and fat groups than thin and very fat groups (chi(2) = 10.607, P < 0.01). The BW and BCS at postpartum affected gestation length positively (P < 0.05). Return rate or number of coitus for conception were higher (P < 0.05) in thin and very fat groups than medium and fat groups. The data revealed that the ewes with medium and fat body condition (BCS = 2.5-4.0) scores were profitable

The analysis of mitochondrial data indicates the existence of population substructure in Karayaka sheep

WOS: 000436214600006In the current study, we investigated the existence of population substructure in the Karayaka sheep breed from Turkey. A fragment of the mitochondrial D-loop region has been successfully sequenced in 69 Karayaka sheep sampled in the districts of carsamba, Bafra and Ladik. Though the B haplogroup was the most abundant in these three subpopulations, haplogroup frequencies and nucleotide diversities were remarkably different. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed the existence of a significant (P-value = 0.019) between-subpopulations component representing 5.14% of the total variation. Moreover, phylogenetic analyses showed that the fixation index (FsT) and the Gamma(ST) genetic distance between Karayaka subpopulations are similar to those observed between certain Turkish sheep breeds. We conclude that there is a significant population substructure in Karayaka sheep. Since breeds do not behave as single panmictic populations, this result could probably be extrapolated to other ovine breeds. Noteworthy, population substructure can have adverse effects on the maintenance of breed diversity and it is an important confounder effect in genome-wide-association studies.Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria (Spain)Instituto de Investigacion Agropecuaria (INIA) [RZ2011-00015-C03-01]; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [22016-20192, SEV-2015-0533]This research was partially funded by a grant (RZ2011-00015-C03-01) from the Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria (Spain). We also acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa 22016-20192 (SEV-2015-0533) grant awarded to the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics. Thanks also to the CERCA Programme of the Generalitat de Catalunya

Analysing the diversity of the caprine melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) in goats with distinct geographic origins

WOS: 000390626600002In humans, the variability of the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene has been associated with geography, being mainly determined by the amount of exposure to sunlight. Studies performed in pigs have also evidenced the existence of a geographic component in the distribution of MC1R haplotypes, probably as a consequence of an ancient split between Asian and European wild boars. Herewith, we have partially resequenced the caprine MC1R coding region in 58 goats from distinct geographic locations i.e. Colombia, Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Romania, Iran and Africa. The resulting dataset was merged with 39 previously published caprine MC1R sequences and a median joining network was built. This phylogenetic analysis did not yield any evidence of a relationship between geography and the clustering of caprine MC1R sequences, a result that was confirmed by performing a Mantel test with a previously published dataset of nine goat breeds (N = 319) with available MC1R genotypes. The majority of caprine MC1R variation was non-synonymous (c.676A > G, c.748G >T, c.764G > A and c.801C > G) and predicted to have functional effects. An analysis of goat MC1R sequences with the PAML 4 software provided evidence that two SNPs (c.764G > A and c.801C>G) might evolve under positive selection. The apparent lack of any link between caprine MC1R variation and geography might be explained by a complex array of factors including artificial selection for pigmentation phenotypes and recent divergence amongst goat breeds. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity [SEV-2015-0533]; CAPES Foundation-Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education, Ministry of Education (MEC) of the Federal Government of BrazilThanks to Jose Gutierrez Plasencia for helping in goat sampling. We also acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity for the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa 2016-2019 (SEV-2015-0533) grant awarded to the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics. Taina F Cardoso was funded with a fellowship from the CAPES Foundation-Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education, Ministry of Education (MEC) of the Federal Government of Brazil