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- Title
Impact of sire on the lifetime susceptibility of their progeny to breech strike in a Mediterranean environment.
- Authors
Greeff, J. C.; Schlink, A. C.; Karlsson, L. J. E.
- Abstract
The progeny groups of resistant and susceptible sires to breech strike were compared for phenotypic differences in conformation and visual score traits recorded from birth to 5 years of age. The incidences of breech strike in the two most resistant sire progeny groups from birth to hogget shearing were 2.5% and 9.0% respectively, while in the two most susceptible sire progeny groups incidences were 94.5% and 102.9% (some sheep struck more than once) respectively. The susceptible groups consistently had a significantly higher strike rate than did the resistant groups over their lifetime. The adult lifetime breech-strike rates were 0.0% and 27.2% for resistant and susceptible sire groups respectively, despite pre-lambing crutchings. Statistically significant differences existed between the resistant and susceptible sire progeny groups for wrinkle and dags, although, in the present study, the average differences were small (0.2-0.6 unit score) for wrinkle, whereas a difference of 1.2 unit scores was found for yearling dag in spring. The very large differences in breech strike contrasts with the modest differences in the visually detectable breech indicator traits. This suggests that other unknown factors appear to contribute to larger differences than expected in breech strike between the sire progeny groups.
- Subjects
MERINO sheep; SHEARING (Livestock); ANIMAL life cycles
- Publication
Animal Production Science, 2018, Vol 58, Issue 8, p1522
- ISSN
1836-0939
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1071/AN17559