The Genetics Of Sheep

Systematics and phylogeny of the sheep;Genetic aspects of domestication, common breeds and their origin; Genetics of colour and hair texture; Genetics of morphological traits and inherited disorders; Biochemical genetics; Molecular genetics of sheep; Molecular genetics of immune molecules; Genetics of disease resistance and vaccine response; Molecular biology and genetics of scrapie in sheep; Cytogenetics: physical chromosome maps; The sheep linkage map; Genetics of behaviour; Biology and genetics of reproduction; Modern reproduction technologies and transgenics; Developmental genetics; Genetic resources and conservation; Genetic improvement of wool production; Genetics of meat quality; Genetics of milk production; Genetic improvement of sheep; Standardized genetic nomenclature for sheep.

Some skill, some luck and lots of fun: sheep colour genetics is like a game of cards! This book explains the rules of the game. Assuming no previous knowledge, the book uses a game of cards to visualise the rules that govern colour genetics, introducing terminology on the way. What are genes and alleles? What is the phenotype of a sheep? What the genotype? The reader is introduced to agouti-pattern, base colour, and spotting and strategies are shown to identifiy them in the reader's own flock. This knowledge is expanded to show how it can be used to plan breeding for certain colours. More genes that influence colour are introduced later in the book and thought is given to preserving diversity within a breed while strategically increasing the presence of desirable traits in a flock. The book focuses on practical aspects. How to identify genotypes? Which animals should be used for test breeding? How can the knowledge be used for individual goals? Written by a molecular biologist and science communicator and co-written by a professional editor of scientific textbooks - both of them breeders of coloured sheep - this book uses an easily understandable approach to explaining colour genetics.

Genetics of Reproduction in Sheep is a compilation of papers that are concerned with the study and application of genetics to the reproduction in sheep. The book is divided into six parts, grouping the papers according to topic. The main topics include genetic variation and selection; the inheritance and the effects of the Booroola gene; genetic strategies for single genes; physiology of genetic variation; the physiological criteria of genetic merit; and the national requirement and systems of husbandry. The text is recommended for those involved with raising sheep and plan to apply genetics in their reproduction, as well as for geneticists who wish to conduct studies on how their field is applied to sheep reproduction.

Planning and organisation pf improvement programmes; Definition of the breeding objective; Genetic basis of sheep improvement programmes; Selection criteria; Performance recording, data processig and adjustment of records; Adjustment of records; Calculation, presentation and use of the information; Industry structure and dissemination of genetic gain; Populations size and genetic improvement; Techniques for increasing the rate of genetic gain; Final remarks: the future.

Breeding Stud Sheep shows how to establish and manage a successful sheep stud. All aspects of stud breeding are covered, including where and how to buy your sheep, selecting the right breeding stock for your stud, flock management, nutrition, disease control, lambing problems, showing sheep, promotion and marketing, and selling stud genetics. The detailed step-by-step strategies will give the reader the ability to develop alternative approaches that best suit their situation. It also explains how new initiatives such as performance recording, DNA testing and modern reproductive techniques can be integrated with the old, time-honoured traditions of sheep breeding. Profiles of highly recognised stud breeders are included, detailing how they started and the strategies they have used to grow their stud sheep operations over many years. This book will help new breeders avoid the pitfalls and mistakes that can occur when starting a new stud venture, and show how to succeed in what is ultimately a tough but very rewarding industry.

Before Mendel, who came closest to the truth about heredity? This book examines the activities of sheep breeders able to transform the appearance and qualities of their stock by combining different traits of body or wool into new patterns. Exploiting what were then untried procedures -individual trait selection, very close inbreeding and progeny testing - they demonstrated inheritance from both sexes and showed how it could be stabilised. Major advances in breeding are associated with the English farmer Robert Bakewell (1725-1795). By the following century, when the sameprocedures had been established at breeding centres in central Europe, theory as well as practice became the subject of wider attention. In the Brno Sheep Breeders' Society, discussions of patterns of heredity finally gave way to the physiological question, 'What is inherited and how?' The questionwas posed by Cyrill Napp, abbot of the monastery to which Mendel was admitted six years later.