Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:19:29.305Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effect of egg transfer on the skin follicles and birthcoats of Finnish Landrace and Soay lambs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

Marca Burns  and
M. L. Ryder
Marca Burns
Affiliation:
A.R.C. Animal Breeding Research Organization, Edinburgh, EH9 3JQ
M. L. Ryder
Affiliation:
A.R.C. Animal Breeding Research Organization, Edinburgh, EH9 3JQ
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The birthcoats of Finnish Landrace lambs showed a wide range of halo-hair grades but all had strongly checked fibre type arrays, which were either Plain or Valley. Transfer to Welsh Mountain dams reduced the effect of prenatal check, giving fewer sickle fibres and increased halo-hair and/or super sickle A percentage. Transfer to Border Leicester tended to have the opposite effect. Fibre diameter measurements made on skin samples indicated an increase in primary fibre diameter in transfers into Welsh dams, but no difference in transfers into the Border Leicester.

All Soay samples had Grade VII halo-hair density and Plateau or Saddle arrays. Transfer of Soay eggs to Finnish Landrace ewes increased the percentage of sickle fibres mainly at the expense of hairy-tip curly-tips. Skin samples from the transferred Soays indicated reduced primary fibre medullation, and evidence of retarded secondary follicle development.

Thus in both breeds the birthcoat changed slightly in the direction of that of the foster-dam. There was, however, no indication that increased prenatal check was associated with increased foetal size. It is therefore concluded that changes in birthcoat as a result of egg transfer are more probably due to direct effects of the maternal environment than to the effect of foetal size as previously postulated.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 82 , Issue 2 , April 1974 , pp. 209 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bradford, G. E., Taylor, St C. S., Hart, R. & Quirke, F. J. (1974). An egg transfer study of litter size, birth weight and lamb survival, Animal Production 18. (In the Press).Google Scholar
Brown, T. D. & Onions, W. J. (1960). Anomalies in the microscopic structure of some wools. Nature, London 186, 93–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burns, M. (1966). Merino birthcoat fibre types and their follicular origin. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 66, 155–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, M. (1972). Effects of ova transfer on the birthcoats of lambs. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 78, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, H. B., Terleoki, S. & Shaw, I. G. (1972). Experimental Border Disease of sheep: effect of infection on primary follicle differentiation in the skin of Dorser Horn lambs. British Veterinary Journal 128, 421–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cockrem, F. (1959). Studies of the effects of the gene N on body growth and fleece development of the New Zealand Romney. III. Fibre diameter and medullation. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 10, 413–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dry, F. W. (1955). Multifactorial inheritance of halo hair abundance in New Zealand Romney sheep. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 6, 608–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dry, F. W. (1965). Lamb fibre types. In Biology of Skin and Hair Growth, Lyne, A. G. and Short, B. F. (Eds.), pp. 89–104. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.Google Scholar
Ryder, M. L. (1970). Post-natal fleece development in some primitive sheep and crosses. Zeitschrift fur Tierzuchtung und Zuchtungsbiologie 186, 371–91.Google Scholar
Ryder, M. L. & Stephenson, S. K. (1968). Wool Growth. London and New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Ryder, M. L. & Wilson, D. T. (1972). Fleece characteristics and postnatal fleece development in Finnish Landrace × Merino sheep. Animal Production 15, 75–84.Google Scholar
Turner, H. N. (1961). Relationships among clean wool weight and its components. II. The effect of maternal handicap and its influence on selection. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 12, 974–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiener, G. & Slee, J. (1965). Maternal and genetic influences on follicle and flece development in Lincoln and Welsh sheep – a study involving egg transfer. Animal Production 7, 333–45.Google Scholar