Aim:The study was conducted at Southern Regional Research Center, ICAR-Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute (CSWRI), Mannavanur, Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu to estimate genetic trends for birth weight (BWT), weaning weight (3WT), 6 months weight (6WT), and greasy fleece weight (GFY) in a Bharat Merino (BM) flock, where selection was practiced for 6WT and GFY.Materials and Methods:The data for this study represents a total of 1652 BM lambs; progeny of 144 sires spread over 15 years starting from 2000 to 2014, obtained from the BM flock of ICAR-SRRC (CSWRI), Mannavanur, Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India. The genetic trends were calculated by regression of average predicted breeding values using software WOMBAT for the traits BWT, 3WT, 6WT and GFY versus the animal’s birth year.Results:The least square means were 3.28±0.02 kg, 19.08±0.23 kg, 25.00±0.35 kg and 2.13±0.07 kg for BWT, 3WT, 6WT and GFY, respectively. Genetic trends were positive and highly significant (p<0.01) for BWT, while the values for 3WT, 6WT and GFY though positive, were not significant. The estimates of genetic trends in BWT, 3WT, 6WT and GFY were 5 g, 0.8 g, 7 g and 0.3 g/year gain and the fit of the regression shows 55%, 22%, 42% and 12% coefficient of determination with the regressed value, respectively. In this study, estimated mean predicted breeding value (kg) in BWT and 3WT, 6WT and GFY were 0.067, 0.008, 0.036 and −0.003, respectively.Conclusion:Estimates of genetic trends indicated that there was a positive genetic improvement in all studied traits and selection would be effective for the improvement of body weight traits and GFY of BM sheep.

In the present study, the data on 1649 Bharat Merino (BM) lambs; progeny of 144 sires over the year from 2000 to 2014 available at Southern Regional Research Centre (SRRC), Central Sheep and Wool Research Institute, Mannavanur were considered for the analysis. The different economic growth traits used for the analysis were birth weight (BWT), weaning weight (3MWT), 6 month weight (6MWT), 12 month weight (12MWT) and greasy fleece yield (GFY). The overall leastsquare means for weights (in kg) were 3.28±0.02, 19.08±0.23, 25.00±0.35, 34.79±0.59 and 2.13±0.07 for BWT, 3MWT, 6MWT, 12MWT and GFY respectively. Different non genetic factors such as year, sex, type of birth and dam's age had significant (P<0.01) influence on BWT and 3MWT. Season influenced the BWT (P<0.05) while it had no significant effect on 3MWT. Six month weight was also significantly (P<0.05) influenced by all non-genetic factors taken under present study. Twelve month weight was significantly affected by year (P<0.01), sex and season (P<0.05). Similarly, analysis of variance showed that the year, sex of the lambs (P<0.01) and season (P<0.05) were important sources of variation on GFY of Bharat Merino sheep. Lambs born single had higher values of BWT and 3MWT than that of the lambs born as twins. The trend of the increase in BWT and 3MWT of the lambs is being observed up to the period when the age of their corresponding dams is 4-5 years. The findings of the present study showed that non -genetic factors play an important role in the expression of genetic potential in the lambs as well as growth performance of Bharat Merino sheep under sub temperate conditions of Kodai hills of Tamil Nadu, India. The genetic parameters estimated of 6MWT indicate that it is most suitable for use as selection criterion. Improvement of body weight of BM sheep seems feasible in selection programs, as some of the related traits are moderately heritable and those traits specially are well correlated, which could suggest that these traits are useful in selection programs.

Aim: The present study was carried out to find out the causative agent of exanthematous skin lesions in sheep maintained by Southern Regional Research Centre, Mannavanur, Kodai hills, Tamil Nadu. Materials and Methods: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with Orf virus (ORFV) B2L gene-specific primers was carried out by employing the total genomic DNA isolated from the scabs as the template. The ORFV isolates from Kodai hills were characterized by the use of bioinformatics tools. Results: The amino acid identity of ORFV isolate 1 from Kodai hills is having 98.14%, 96.29%, and 83.59% identity with reference strains of ORFV, Pseudocowpox virus, and bovine papular stomatitis virus, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that ORFV isolates from Kodai hills clustered with the other ORFV isolates from different geographical areas of India. Conclusion: The etiological agent of exanthematous skin lesion among sheep of Kodai hills is ORFV.

Background: The genetic variability in a population is the raw material for selection, because the estimation of genetic parameters depends on the variability present within the population. The pedigree analysis is a method to assess population genetic variability. An increase in the level of inbreeding disturbs the production performance of the animals. Hence, it is essential to assess the effect of inbreeding on production performance of the animals at regular intervals. The present study was conducted on data of Bharat Merino (BM) sheep with twin objectives of evaluating the population structure by pedigree analysis and possible effect of inbreeding on lamb growth and heritability estimates. Methods: The study was conducted on data consisting of a total of 9688 pedigree records of BM sheep born from 1975 to 2018 (43 years), out of which 9050 formed population reference (with both the parents known). ENDOG ver 4.8 program was used to generate different measures of genetic diversity. General Linear Model of SPSS 25.0 was used to ascertain the effect of inbreeding (Fi) or change in inbreeding (ÄFi) on the lamb live weights. Using animal model with software WOMBAT, single trait linear mixed model analyses were performed. The heritability estimates and breeding values were obtained by including or excluding the inbreeding coefficient in the model to observe how the estimates of heritability varied with inclusion or exclusion of the inbreeding coefficient. Result: Effective number of founders (fe) was 56, constituting 11.39% founders in the population reference, while the effective number of ancestors (fa) was 43.The genetic contribution of the 15 most influent ancestors explained 50% of the genetic variability in the dataset. The ratio fe/fa, representing the effect of population bottleneck, was 1.302. The average inbreeding coefficients for the whole pedigree was 2.36%, while it was 3.84% for inbred animals. It was found that the inbreeding coefficient (Fi) increased with the addition of each generation to the pedigree. The average relatedness coefficient was 4.53% between members of the population.The effect of individual inbreeding (Fi) or the change in inbreeding (DFi) was not significant on the lamb live weights, except the effect of individual inbreeding (Fi) on three-month body weight and average daily gain (0-3month) and of change in inbreeding (DFi) on three-month body weight. From the analysis of the pedigree data of Bharat Merino sheep, it was found that the most of the measures of genetic diversity were within acceptable limits and the pedigree data was reasonably well maintained. When inbreeding was accounted for in the model, there were reductions in h2 estimates as well as the estimates of breeding values for both 3WT and ADG1 and consequently there were changes in ranking of animals for both 3WT and ADG1.

Lysozyme, an anti-bacterial enzyme, is mostly found in the body fluids, various tissues and secretions of animals and humans, and confers immunity against a wide range of bacterial species. The present study was carried out to elucidate the gene sequence of this enzyme in Indian Sahiwal 3 Holstein Friesian crossbred cattle and to explore the polymorphism of the gene as well as their association with milk production and somatic cell traits. The total length of lysozyme cDNA was found to be of 447 bp. The similarity with Bos taurus, human, pig, monkey, gorilla, mice, rat, chicken, dog and sheep was estimated as 99.1%, 85%, 81.0%, 85.2%, 84.3%, 77.9%, 77.9%, 41.4%, 40.5% and 24.6%, respectively. Polymorphism study of two fragments, extended exon1 including promoter, exon1 and partial intron1 (268 bp), and extended exon2 including partial intron1 and 2, and exon2 region (287 bp) of milk lysozyme gene was carried out by employing single-stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP). In the extended exon1 fragment, three alleles namely A, B and C with frequencies of 0.59, 0.28 and 0.12 were observed while in the exon extended fragment, three different alleles -P, Q and R with respective frequencies of 0.61, 0.38 and 0.01 -were determined in Indian Sahiwal 3 Holstein Friesian cross. A total of eight haplotypes were found in this population where the most predominant one was h1 (0.52). Genotypes of exon1 extended fragment showed significant association with total milk yield, daily milk yield, peak yield and somatic cell score at P , 0.05 while that of exon2 extended fragment had significant correlation with only total lactational milk yield. Haplotype combinations also revealed significant association with total milk production where h1h1 homozygous showed highest yield during first lactation.