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Fattening performance of purebred and crossbred lambs from fat-tailed Kurdi ewes mated to four Iranian native ram breeds

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Abstract

A crossbreeding experiment was carried out to determine the sire breed effects on fattening performance of fat-tailed lambs. Rams from four Iranian fat-tailed sheep breeds, namely Kurdi (K), Afshari (A), Chaal (C) and Sanjabi (S) were mated to Kurdi ewes producing 454 progeny of four genotype groups (KK, AK, CK and SK). A total of 80 lambs comprising ten female and ten male lambs from each genotype group were used in a fattening experiment during a period of 88 days. Genotype of the lamb had significant effect on average dry matter intake (ADMI) (P < 0.05). SK lambs had the lowest ADMI. Average daily gain (ADG) and food conversion ratio (FCR) were not influenced by genotype of the lamb. Sex of the lamb had significant effect on both ADG and FCR (P < 0.01). Slaughter weight (SLW), hot carcass weight (HCW), cold carcass weight (CCW) and daily carcass gain (DCG) were not affected by lamb's genotype. However, genotype had significant effect on dressing percentage, carcass loss percentage (P < 0.01), carcass length (CL), leg circumference (LC), carcass compactness (CC) (P < 0.01) and carcass density (CD) (P < 0.05). Carcass width (CW) and leg length (LL) were not affected by lamb's genotype. Sex of the lamb had significant effects on CL, CW, LC, CC, CD (P < 0.01) and LL (P < 0.05). The results indicated the existence of sire breed difference for daily dry matter intake and carcass conformation in the fat-tailed sheep.

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Acknowledgment

This study was carried out with Ethics Committee approval and was funded by Ilam University, Ilam, Iran. The authors wish to thank the staff in the livestock research center of Ilam University and the commercial abattoir of Ilam, Iran, for their technical support and the students of the Department of Animal Science at Ilam University for assistance with data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, PB 76169-133, Iran

    Ali K. Esmailizadeh

  2. College of Veterinary Science, Ilam University, Ilam, Iran

    Mostafa Nemati

  3. Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jiroft, Jiroft, Iran

    Mortaza S. Mokhtari

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  1. Ali K. Esmailizadeh
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  2. Mostafa Nemati
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  3. Mortaza S. Mokhtari
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Correspondence to Ali K. Esmailizadeh.

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Esmailizadeh, A.K., Nemati, M. & Mokhtari, M.S. Fattening performance of purebred and crossbred lambs from fat-tailed Kurdi ewes mated to four Iranian native ram breeds. Trop Anim Health Prod 44, 217–223 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-011-0001-4

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