SUMMARYSheep from the Soay, Finnish Landrace, Southdown and Oxford Down breeds were serially slaughtered at about 40, 50, 60 and 70% of their estimated mature body weight. Breed and sex comparisons were made at these degrees of maturity. Large differences were found in the weight of muscle, fat and bone, total muscle ranging from a mean of 3·3 kg in the Soay to 13·0 kg in the Oxford Down; the corresponding range for dissected fat was 1·2 to 9·2 kg.Most of the breed and sex differences observed at the same degree of maturity disappeared when expressed as a percentage of body or carcass weight. Thus both sexes had almost the same body and carcass composition in terms of fat, muscle and bone percentage. There were breed differences in fat percentage, with the Soay significantly less fat than the other breeds. Total muscle as a percentage of body weight was remarkably close to 28·5% in all breeds in both sexes, and at all four stages of maturity.

Genetic size-scaling accounts for most of the variation found among mammalian species in food intake and growth rate, with food conversion efficiency independent of the body size of the species. Is the same true of breeds and strains within species?Animals from Soay, Welsh Mountain, Southdown, Finish Landrace, Jacob, Wiltshire Horn and Oxford Down sheep breeds and from a breed of feral goats were grown to 0·40, 0·52, 0·64 or 0·76 of the mean mature weight of their breed and sex. Food was offered ad libitum and individually recorded.Allometric growth coefficients were obtained for fleece weight, femur weight and femur length. Fleece was late maturing and femur early.Breed and sex size-scaling coefficients, obtained by regression of breed and sex means on mature size, were similar to those found at the species level for age from conception to slaughter, time taken to mature and food conversion efficiency. Coefficients were higher than expected for total and daily food consumption, especially at early stages of maturity. Most breed coefficients were close to expectation while sex coefficients were somewhat higher than expected.There were significant breed deviations: Welsh Mountain, Oxford Down and probably Soay sheep required less time and Jacob sheep and feral goats required more time to mature than expected from differences in mature size. Soay and Welsh Mountain sheep appeared to be more efficient and feral goats and Jacob sheep less efficient food converters over the same maturity interval.

Objective: Pharmacists are ideally positioned to promote optimal use and assess the adherence of prescription medications in patients with chronic diseases. This systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) ascertains the effectiveness of pharmacist interventions to improve blood pressure (BP) control and medication adherence in patients with hypertension. Data Sources: Electronic databases were searched for studies in English published between January 1, 1995, and January 31, 2018. Eligibility criteria included patients with a diagnosis of hypertension tested with RCT where pharmacist-led interventions occurred. The primary outcome was BP control and the secondary outcome was adherence to hypertensive medication. Quality of studies was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool. Data Synthesis: Thirty-five studies met the inclusion–exclusion criteria and were included in this study. Major themes included pharmacist-led interventions with medication counseling, patient education, distribution of interventions materials, individualized care plans, and check-in meetings. The vast majority of trials (n = 29) showed statistically significant improvement in BP in the intervention groups at follow-up. Of the 35 studies, most (n = 20) assessed medication adherence; several trials (n = 9) showed statistically significant improvement in medication adherence in patients receiving additional pharmaceutical care services. None of the RCTs was considered to have a high risk of bias. Conclusion: Pharmacist-led interventions improved BP control and medication adherence through education, counseling, or a combination of both. Future research is needed to determine the most effective pharmacists’ interventions in managing hypertension and to assess the cost-effectiveness of these interventions.

A series of trials was conducted to measure the extent of individual variation in feedblock intake for ewes on upland/hill farms. From 15 flocks on nine farms 4284 ewes were selected with a range of environmental conditions and levels of performance. Ewes were given either Rumevite, Norbloc or Wintawell feedblocks containing chromic oxide. Faecal grab samples were taken per rectum from individual ewes and analysed for their chromium content to obtain estimates of feedblock consumption.The results showed that provision of feedblocks does not ensure a uniform intake of supplementary nutrients by sheep in upland/hill situations. On average, 19% of the 2931 ewes sampled had not eaten the feedblock on offer. The proportion of ewes not consuming feedblock varied from flock to flock (0 to 67%). The coefficient of variation of faecal chromium concentrations varied between flocks (46 to 231%). The reasons for the large variation in intakes observed are discussed. Feedblock intake was significantly affected by the grazing area per ewe (P<0·01) and the age of ewes (P<0·05 to P< 0·001).

The objective of this study was to assess the growth and development of carcass composition of entire male and female lambs of three British hill breeds (Scottish Blackface, Welsh Mountain, and Shetland), from weaning to approaching maturity, when kept under conditions designed to be nutritionally non-limiting. Lambs were weaned at 8 weeks of age and given a high-quality pelleted diet ad libitum until slaughter at one of five different degrees of maturity. The Gompertz growth function was used to characterize, for each genotype, the growth curve and to provide estimates of mature weight. As expected, there were significant effects of breed and sex on both food intake and growth rate. Growth rate was depressed, relative to the Gompertz fit, during the months of October to January, and intake was similarly depressed. The estimates of mature weight for the females of each breed were: Scottish Blackface, 69; Welsh Mountain, 61; Shetland, 46 kg. The mature weights of the males were found to be not significantly different from 1-3 times the mature weight of females. Relationships between carcass composition and live weight were derived by allometric regression. This study provides the first full description of the growth and meat production potential of the three breeds.