• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.41-45
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• 1991

Insulin responsiveness to glucose and tissue responsiveness to insulin, using the hyperglycemic clamp and the hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp techniques, were compared among cows, sheep and pigs. The plasma insulin concentrations during the hyperglaycemic clamp period were highest (p < 0.05) in cows, followed by sheep and pigs. The glucose infusion rate in the hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp technique was greater (p < 0.01) in pigs than in cows and sheep. These results suggest responsiveness to insulin is higher in pigs than in cows and sheep.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.529-533
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• 2003

The intake, dry matter (DM) digestibility, total mean retention time (TMRT) and weight changes were investigated in four fat tailed and four Dorper sheep fed on a maize stover crop residue. Animals were subjected to five dietary treatments, which were: 90, 135 and $180g\;DM/kgBW^{0.75}/day$ of chopped maize stover offered with urea, and in subsequent dietary treatments $180g\;DM/kgBW^{0.75}/day$ of stover supplemented with either dried bean husks or poultry manure. Although not statistically different (p>0.05) fat tailed sheep had higher maize stover intake than the Dorper sheep when expressed per metabolic body weight. The DM intake and digestibility increased significantly (p<0.001) in both sheep breeds when the maize stover offer levels were increased from 90 to $135g/kgBW^{0.75}/day$. Dorper sheep had significantly (p<0.001) higher DM digestibility and longer total mean retention times for both the liquid and solid matter than the fat-tailed sheep. Fat-tailed sheep gained 4.75 kg while Dorper sheep gained 3.75 kg over the entire experimental period. The weight change per dietary treatment was affected by the amount of maize stover and the type and amount of supplement consumed. The higher DM digestibility and longer total mean retention time in Dorper sheep shows that the breed has adapted to utilize the low quality roughage diets. An indigenous fat tailed, has the potential to ingest high volumes of fibrous feed and has higher voluntary intakes relative to its body size. The two sheep breeds are a valuable genetic resource in sub Saharan Africa that is characterized by long dry season with no readily available and affordable conventional feeds for small ruminants.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.737-742
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• 2004

Garole, a prolific small sized sheep breed of West Bengal, was introduced in the Mutton project of the Institute in 1997 to explore the possibility of incorporating fecundity gene(s) into monotocus Malpura sheep of Rajasthan. Results of reproduction and production traits in respect of Garole${\times}$Malpura (G${\times}$M) half-breds have been obtained. Of 35 lambing obtained so far from the ewes of Garole${\times}$Malpura, 45.71% were twin lambing, whereas, Malpura sheep produced mostly single lamb except 2.55% twin lambing on an average. Other reproduction traits in G${\times}$M ewes such as lambing rate, litter size at birth and weaning were considerably improved over Malpura ewes. Results revealed that the fecundity genes responsible for increasing ovulation rate and litter size have been incorporated in to the G${\times}$M genotype and it might prove a valuable germ plasm towards evolving a new prolific strain of sheep. Interestingly, survivability of G${\times}$M half-breds was almost at par with the local Malpura sheep in harsh climatic conditions of semi-arid tropics. The body weights at different ages of G${\times}$M half-breds were on little lower side compared to contemporary Malpura lambs. Average kilogram of lambs weaned/ewe lambed in Malpura and G${\times}$M genetic group was 11.86 and 11.07 kg respectively. In view of minimizing the differences in body weights and kg of lambs weaned/ewe lambed between the two genetic groups, G${\times}$M ewes has to be backcrossed with Malpura rams to raise the inheritance of latter up to 75% level. However, further research is needed to reach on certain conclusions regarding net returns from such crosses.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1575-1579
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• 2007

The glucose tolerance and pancreatic insulin secretion response to glucose in sheep fed on germinated sorghum grain were determined using an intravenous glucose load. Twelve male Thin Tail sheep (an Indonesian native sheep, 12 months old and 14.8 kg average body weight) were divided randomly into sorghum grain-based (S), germinated sorghum grain-based (G) and maize grain-based (C) diets. Sheep were maintained at the same daily intake levels of metabolizable energy and crude protein in the diets throughout the experimental period. After two months of the experimental conditions, each diet group was subjected to an intravenous glucose load experiment in which five doses of glucose (0, 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg/kg BW) were injected to estimate the rate of glucose removal from blood and the pancreatic insulin secretion response. For each sheep and each glucose load dose, the incremental blood serum glucose and insulin concentrations above pre-injection concentration were calculated as serum glucose and insulin response areas. At all glucose doses, sheep fed on S diet had a greater (p<0.05) glucose response area compared to those of sheep fed on G and C diets. Likewise at all glucose doses, the insulin response area was smaller (p<0.05) in sheep fed on S diet than in sheep fed on G and C diets. The glucose and insulin response areas in sheep fed on G and C diets differed slightly. It was concluded that the portion of maize grain in the ruminant ration could be substituted by germinated sorghum grain.

• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.198-206
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• 2020

Food and agricultural production sector, especially livestock production is vital for Mongolia's economic and social development. Domestic sheep play key roles for Mongolians, providing food (meat, milk) and raw materials (wool, sheepskin), but genetic diversity, origin of sheep populations in Mongolia have not been well studied. Studies of population genetic diversity is important research field in conservation and restoration of animal breeds and genetic resources. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate genetic characteristics and estimate origin through the analysis of mitochondrial DNA control region D-loop and Cytochrome b of Mongolian indigenous sheep (Mongolian native, Orkhon and Altanbulag) and one Europe sheep (Suffolk). As a result of there were found, 220 SNPs (Single nucleotide polymorphism) in the D-loop region, 28 SNPs in the Cytochrome B region, furthermore, 77 Haplotypes. The nucleotide diversity was only found in D-loop region (n = 0.0184). Phylogenetic analysis showed that 3 (A, B, and C) of 5 haplogroups of sheep have been identified in our research. Haplogroup C was only found in Mongolian indigenous sheep. Haplogroup D and E were not observed. As a result of haplogroups, haplogroup A was dominant (n = 46 of 94 sheeps), followed by haplogroup B (n = 36) and haplogroup C (n = 12). Sequence analysis showed that T deletion, insertion and heteroplasmy in D-loop region occurred at a high rate in Mongolian indigenous sheep population (T insertion = 47, T deletion = 83). The heteroplasmy, which has never been found in Mongolian sheep, has been newly discovered in this study. As a result, the Mongolian sheep varieties, which mainly derived from Asia, were in hybridization with European sheep varieties.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.1523-1528
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• 2000

Four Suffolk ewes were used in Latin Square switch over design to study the effects of varying levels and sources of protein on heat production and thermoregulatory responses at daytime high ($33^{\circ}C$ temperature. They were fed Italian ryegrass hay supplemented with fishmeal and/or urea, providing three different levels of crude protein (CP) (low/unsupplemented: 7.9, medium: 11.6, and high: 15.8%) at $1.5{\times}maintenance$. Feeds were distributed at 0900 (30%) and 1700 (70%). Urea diet caused higher heat production and increased vaginal temperature compared to fishmeal and fishmeal-urea mix diets. Time spent standing, skin temperature and respiration rate of sheep fed urea were similar with those of sheep fed fishmeal. Sheep fed diet with low CP level had higher heat production, increased vaginal and skin temperature than sheep fed diet with medium CP content. Sheep on high CP diet produced significantly more heat than sheep fed medium CP diets. Their vaginal temperatures were similar with those of sheep fed medium CP diet but lower than those of sheep fed low CP diet. Respiration rates of sheep and time spent by them for standing on all diets did not differ significantly. These results suggest that urea is inferior protein supplement for thermoregulation of animal at hot environment, as it induced higher heat production than fishmeal and fishmeal-urea mix. Thermoregulatory response on fishmeal-urea mix diet was similar to fishmeal diet. Increasing CP of the diet from low to medium gives advantage for thermoregulation of animal. Increasing CP further to high level was not beneficial as it resulted in the responses of sheep similar to those on low protein diet.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.1378-1386
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• 2020

Objective: Chinese indigenous sheep breeds can be classified into the following three categories by their tail morphology: fat-tailed, fat-rumped and thin-tailed sheep. The typical sheep breeds corresponding to fat-tailed, fat-rumped, and thin-tailed sheep are large-tailed Han, Altay, and Tibetan sheep, respectively. Detection of copy number variation (CNV) and selection signatures provides information on the genetic mechanisms underlying the phenotypic differences of the different sheep types. Methods: In this study, PennCNV software and F-statistics (F_ST) were implemented to detect CNV and selection signatures, respectively, on the X chromosome in three Chinese indigenous sheep breeds using ovine high-density 600K single nucleotide polymorphism arrays. Results: In large-tailed Han, Altay, and Tibetan sheep, respectively, a total of six, four and 22 CNV regions (CNVRs) with lengths of 1.23, 0.93, and 7.02 Mb were identified on the X chromosome. In addition, 49, 34, and 55 candidate selection regions with respective lengths of 27.49, 16.47, and 25.42 Mb were identified in large-tailed Han, Altay, and Tibetan sheep, respectively. The bioinformatics analysis results indicated several genes in these regions were associated with fat, including dehydrogenase/reductase X-linked, calcium voltage-gated channel subunit alpha1 F, and patatin like phospholipase domain containing 4. In addition, three other genes were identified from this analysis: the family with sequence similarity 58 member A gene was associated with energy metabolism, the serine/arginine-rich protein specific kinase 3 gene was associated with skeletal muscle development, and the interleukin 2 receptor subunit gamma gene was associated with the immune system. Conclusion: The results of this study indicated CNVRs and selection regions on the X chromosome of Chinese indigenous sheep contained several genes associated with various heritable traits.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.357-364
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• 1995

A biochemical genetic study on blood enzyme/protein systems in some breeds/crosses of sheep in Malaysia was carried out using horizontal starch gel electrophoresis. Blood samples were collected from 435 sheep, representing 8 breeds/crosses. These included 5 wool sheep breeds (Thai Longtail, wiltshire, Suffolk, Dorsimal and cMBLx), 1 hair sheep breed (Barbados Blackbelly) and 2 hybrids between wool sheep and hair sheep (Cameroon ${\times}$ Thai Longtail and Bali Bali ${\times}$ Malin). Twenty loci systems were examined. Of these, ten ($HB{\beta}$, ALB, TF, XP, CAT, DIA1, EsA, GPI, ME and NP) exhibited genetic variation whereas the other ten (AAT, CA, DIA2, ${\alpha}GLO$, ${\alpha}GLU$, LDH, MDH, PEP[leu-gly-gly], 6PGD and SOD) were monomorphic. The allelic frequencies which were obtained in 10 polymorphic markers are assessed and compared with the results obtained by previous workers. The estimations of inbreeding coefficient, intrabreed variation and breed relationships have been critically discussed and are used to reveal some important recommendations.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.583-587
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• 2004

The 7 sheep microsatellite markersOarFCB48, OarAE101, MAF33, OarFCB11, MAF70, OarFCB304 and OarFCB128, which were located on chromosomes 2, 4, 6, 9, 17 and 19, were selected to PCR in Hu sheep, Tong sheep and their closely related species,the goat. They were studied with the amplifying result of 7 microsatellite sites of Hu Sheep, Tong Sheep and goats, the data of allele number and range of allele' size of amplifying were analyzed with ANOVA. The results showed that there were no significant differences (p<0.05) in microsatellite DNA sites among 3 populations. Concerning the conservation of microsatellites in closely related species, selecting microsatellite sites located on the chromosome where the Robertsonian fusion was caused between sheep and goat, may be used in research into genetic differentiation and evolutionary relationships between sheep and goats.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.505-510
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• 1992

The experiments were carried out to study the effect of physical forms of hay diet on phosphorus metabolism by offering sheep roughage diets containing a low phosphorus content. The sheep were fed coarse hay, short hay or finely ground pelleted hay. The physical forms of hat diet had little effect on the pathway of phosphorus excretion. In all groups, the most of phosphorus was excreted in feces and urinary phosphorus excretion was negligible. Duodenal fluid flow, rumen fluid outflow and estimated salivary flow appeared to be relatively high in sheep fed the coarse hay diet as compared to those in sheep fed the finely ground diet. The amount of phosphorus flow to the duodenum tended to be high in the coarse diet group as compared to those in other two groups. On the other hand, phosphorus concentrations in the duodenal fluid and the rumen fluid were lower in sheep fed the coarse hay diet than those in sheep fed the ground hay. Net intestinal phosphorus absorption tended to be higher in sheep fed the coarse hay than that in sheep fed the ground hay or pelleted hay. However, a negative phosphorus balance was observed in the coarse hay diet group although a positive phosphorus balance was found in other two groups. It was considered that salivary phosphorus secretion was greater than the amount of salivary phosphorus reabsorbed from the intestine, resulting in the negative of phosphorus balance in sheep fed the coarse hay.