Transferrin types and reproduction in sheep

Blood groups and biochemical polymorphism in the Namaqua sheep breed

The Namaqua is an indigenous fat-tailed African breed of sheep which has remained relatively isolated and which at one time dwindled to near extinction. Frequency data are given for blood group antigens, red cell glutathione and potassium types, for electrophoretic variants of red cell haemoglobin, 'X' protein, nucleoside phosphorylase, NADH-diaphorase, lysine and carbonic anhydrase and of plasma esterase, transferrin and albumin. Of particular interest was the occurrence of the i blood group, a bimodal distribution in red cell glutathione concentrations and red cell potassium concentrations of around 57 mmol/l cells, i.e. neither typically LK nor HK type.

Comparative aspects of biochemical polymorphism in the blood of Caprinae species and their hybrids

Biochemical variation at 14 blood loci was reviewed, and specific features compared experimentally in sheep Ovis aries, mouflon Ovis musimon, goat Capra hircus, aoudad Ammotragus Iervia and in 2 stillborn aoudad X goat hybrids. Variation at 3 loci was also studied in dall sheep Ovis dalli, bighorn sheep Ovis canadensis and rocky mountain goat Oreamnos americanus. Haemoglobin C production in an anaemic Hb AB mouflon and in mouflon X sheep hybrids was examined. Mouflon differ from domestic sheep in that synthesis of both Hb beta A and Hb beta B chains is switched off during Hb C production. The mouflon X sheep hybrids switched off one or both chains depending on whether they had inherited sheep or mouflon Hb beta chain genes. In general aoudad showed a closer affinity to goats than to sheep.

Genetic polymorphism in Spanish Merino sheep

A Spanish Merino sheep population is characterized, for the first time, according to its frequencies for a total of nine polymorphic loci: three blood group factor systems, A, B and C, and the following red cell or serum polymorphisms: haemoglobin (Hb), carbonic anhydrase (CA), 'X protein', transferrin (Tf), arylesterase (EsA) and albumin (Al). Another locus, amylase (Am), did not show polymorphism.

Genetic markers in the blood of Spanish goat breeds

Biochemical variation of four genetic markers (Hb, Al, Tf, 'X' protein) in the blood of four Spanish goat breeds was analysed with starch gel electrophoresis. The frequencies at all of these loci have been calculated for the Spanish goats and compared with some of the goat breeds studied so far by other authors.

Characterization of indigenous fat-tailed and fat-rumped hair sheep in Kenya: diversity in blood proteins

This paper reports the variation in five blood proteins from five populations of sheep found in Kenya. Blood samples were collected from a total of 309 adult sheep of both sexes in Kwale, Makueni and Kakamega districts for the fat-tailed sheep and in Isiolo district for the fat-rumped hair sheep. Fine-wooled Merino sheep were used in this study as the reference population. Transferrin, esterase-A and esterase-C were polymorphic in all the populations investigated, while albumin was monomorphic for the S allele in the fat-tailed sheep and haemoglobin was fixed for the B allele in the Kwale, Makueni and Isiolo populations. Phylogenies derived from the pairwise genetic distance estimates showed a clear separation between the indigenous sheep populations and the exotic Merino. However, the topology of the former showed rather poor consistency with their morphological classification based on the localization of their fat deposits, namely fat-tailed or fat-rumped hair sheep.