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Testicular growth and its relationship to body weight of Awassi, Redkaraman and their crossbred ram lambs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

E. Emsen*
Affiliation:
Ataturk Universitesi, Ziraat Fakultesi, Zootekni Bolumu, 25240, Turkey
O.C. Bilgin
Affiliation:
Ataturk Universitesi, Ziraat Fakultesi, Zootekni Bolumu, 25240, Turkey
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Extract

Rate of testis growth was found to be more rapid in ram lambs of a breed with high prolificacy such as the Finnish Landrace than in a non- prolific breed such as the Scottish Blackface (Land and Carr, 1975). Also, Louda et al. (1981), after observing testis growth, and small but consistent differences in the development of sexual activity and of sperm production, suggested that young rams of prolific breeds (Romanov and Finnish Landrace) may differ in their potential reproductive performance, though slightly. Crossbreeding, primarily a breeding system for commercial production is to take advantage, as far as possible, of good qualities of two or more breeds of distinctly different types (Rice et al.1957). Thus, the present study was conducted to evaluate breeds and reciprocal crossbreeding effects on development of two testicular parameters and body growth in growing Awassi, Redkaraman purebred and their reciprocal crossbred ram lambs.

Type
Poster Presentations
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2004

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References

Bilgin, O. C., Emsen, E., Davis, M. E. 2003. Comparison of non-linear models for describing the growth of scrotal circumference in Awassi male lambs. Small Rum. Res. Corrected proof, article in press.Google Scholar
Land, R. B. and Carr, W. R., 1975. Testes growth and plasma LH concentration following hemicastration and its relation with female prolificacy in sheep. J. Reprod. Fertil. 41: 495501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Louda, F., Doney, J.M., Stolc, L., Krizek, J., Smerha, J., 1981. The development of sexual activity and semen production in ram lambs of two prolific breeds: Romanov and Finnish Landrace. Anim. Prod. 33: 143148.Google Scholar
Rice, V. A., Andrews, F. N., Warwick, E. J. and Legates, J. E. 1957. Breeding and Improvement of Farm Animals.CrossRefGoogle Scholar