This investigation was conducted to evaluate the comparative productive performances and effect of some environmental factors on wool characteristics of Arkharmerino × Ghezel (Ar × Gh) and Arkharmerino × Moghani (Ar × Mo) crossbreed sheep. The mid-side fleece samples taken from animals during 2 years (2007-2008) were analyzed. Each sample was measured for average fiber diameter, fiber diameter variability, staple length, proportion of medullated fiber, proportion of kemp, and comfort factor. The comparative values for these fleece characteristics in F(3) generation Ar × Gh were 28.78 ± 0.48 μm, 36.84 ± 1.16%, 11.94 ± 0.35 cm, 7.07 ± 0.93%, 1.02 ± 0.23%, and 68.93%, respectively; while those traits were 29.79 ± 0.43 μm, 41.86 ± 1.16%, 11.96 ± 0.37 cm, 8.13 ± 1.06%, 2.71 ± 0.45%, and 63.33 ± 3.66% for Ar × Mo, respectively. The effects of genotype, sex, birth type, and year of birth were analyzed. Genotype had a significant (P < 0.01) effect on average fiber diameter and proportion of kemp, and Ar × Gh crossbreeds had lower diameter with less proportion of kemp. The two differences in fiber characteristics that were attributable to sex were fiber diameter variability and proportion of medullated fiber, and females had higher measure than males for both traits. Statistical analysis showed that crossbreeding with Arkharmerino generally had positive effects on the fleece favored to be used in the hand woven authentic carpet production.
In this study the possibility of body size estimation of new born lambs using image processing and its effect on the genetic gain of a simulated population has been investigated. The body size of 158 new born lambs of Zandi sheep was evaluated via appraisal method, digital image processing and metric methods. The correlation coefficients between metric lamb size with quantities were calculated from image processing method and appraisal method were 0.88 and 0.48, respectively (P < 0.01). In the next step, two populations were randomly simulated using R2.15 programming environment, and two different scenarios based on two lamb size measurement methods were studied. In the first scenario, it was assumed that the animal body size is determined using image processing technique in continuous values, while in the second scenario it was assumed that the body size is determined via appraisal method in discrete values. As results, the accuracies of breeding value estimations in the first and second scenario were 0.89 and 0.78, and the genetic trends were 0.46 and 0.28, respectively (P < 0.01). The results showed that determination of lamb size based on proposed image processing method is feasible, and replacement of this new method instead of human appraisal method could increase the genetic gain in the breeding herds.
In this study we reported the development and evaluation of a quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction (QC-PCR) for detection and quantification of poultry DNA in fish meal. A universal PCR primer pair (Pou) was used to amplify a specific region 12s rRNA from poultry DNA. Specificity of the primers was evaluated with DNA from cattle and sheep. An external control DNA was constructed by 83 bp differing in length from the poultry target sequence and used for PCR reaction together with the target DNA. DNA was extracted from thirty commercial samples of fish meal and spiked with external control DNA and was co-amplified with Pou primer pair. The signal intensity was quantified by ImageJ 1.29x and were used to compare variety of poultry pollution percentage in fish meal samples. The results of QC_PCR showed that pollution percentage was in the range of 0.1 to 3% in collected samples. This study was the first report of QC_PCR application for quantifying of poultry pollution in fish meal in Iran.
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