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Ewe lambs from ewe lambs
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<blockquote data-quote="Global ovine" data-source="post: 4186178" data-attributes="member: 493"><p>I recommend retaining replacement breeding ewes from dams that were ewe lambs at the time. These should be the best generation productively only if the sires introduced to the flock were selected on meaningful data. However, longevity doesn't come into that equation, as those oldest dams certainly have passed a large number of annual tests to still be present in the breeding flock.</p><p>What [USER=270]@wee man[/USER] has pointed to is probably the result of epigenetics. This is an environmental influence on an embryo that triggers a genetic change which can be measured across the generations into the future.</p><p>In my Romney flock of 2000 ewes and 800 ewe lambs mated annually, all fully recorded and considered the "cleanest' set of data collected over more than 20 years, hence used for validation by geneticists. Dr. Peter Amer of AbacusBio Ltd. did several studies. One showed a significant difference in the lamb mortality over a ewes lifetime if she herself was born out of a ewe lamb. However sisters born out of the same dams as mature ewes, had lower mortality in their lambs. I never noticed the difference, but it showed through in the data once pull out for examination. I probably culled many of these ewes in subsequent years because of their lower "Survival" BV, as the difference was 13% worse than those ewes born out of mature dams. </p><p>The difference is too great for it to be a behavioral, or a learned trait, e.g. "mum mucked around too long when I was born, therefore I don't yet know what good mothering is", as that situation would exist for most assisted lambings where dams suffer a greater degree of birthing trauma and less interested in lambs initially. </p><p></p><p>There are some very intriguing examples of epigenetics recently discovered that affect the ovulation rates and embryonic mortality of subsequent generations after an environmental change in just one generation. These things fall out of large sets of data when the appropriate analysis is applied.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Global ovine, post: 4186178, member: 493"] I recommend retaining replacement breeding ewes from dams that were ewe lambs at the time. These should be the best generation productively only if the sires introduced to the flock were selected on meaningful data. However, longevity doesn't come into that equation, as those oldest dams certainly have passed a large number of annual tests to still be present in the breeding flock. What [USER=270]@wee man[/USER] has pointed to is probably the result of epigenetics. This is an environmental influence on an embryo that triggers a genetic change which can be measured across the generations into the future. In my Romney flock of 2000 ewes and 800 ewe lambs mated annually, all fully recorded and considered the "cleanest' set of data collected over more than 20 years, hence used for validation by geneticists. Dr. Peter Amer of AbacusBio Ltd. did several studies. One showed a significant difference in the lamb mortality over a ewes lifetime if she herself was born out of a ewe lamb. However sisters born out of the same dams as mature ewes, had lower mortality in their lambs. I never noticed the difference, but it showed through in the data once pull out for examination. I probably culled many of these ewes in subsequent years because of their lower "Survival" BV, as the difference was 13% worse than those ewes born out of mature dams. The difference is too great for it to be a behavioral, or a learned trait, e.g. "mum mucked around too long when I was born, therefore I don't yet know what good mothering is", as that situation would exist for most assisted lambings where dams suffer a greater degree of birthing trauma and less interested in lambs initially. There are some very intriguing examples of epigenetics recently discovered that affect the ovulation rates and embryonic mortality of subsequent generations after an environmental change in just one generation. These things fall out of large sets of data when the appropriate analysis is applied. [/QUOTE]
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