History and genetic diversity of African sheep: Contrasting phenotypic and genomic diversity.

Domesticated sheep have adapted to contrasting and extreme environments and continue to play important roles in local community-based economies throughout Africa. Here we review the Neolithic migrations of thin-tailed sheep and the later introductions of fat-tailed sheep into eastern Africa. According to contemporary pictorial evidence, the latter occurred in Egypt not before the Ptolemaic period (305-25 BCE).

Genetic Differentiation among Livestock Breeds-Values for F.

(1) Background: The F statistic is widely used to characterize between-breed relationships. F = 0.1 has frequently been taken as indicating genetic distinctiveness between breeds.

Local adaptations of Mediterranean sheep and goats through an integrative approach.

Small ruminants are suited to a wide variety of habitats and thus represent promising study models for identifying genes underlying adaptations. Here, we considered local Mediterranean breeds of goats (n = 17) and sheep (n = 25) from Italy, France and Spain. Based on historical archives, we selected the breeds potentially most linked to a territory and defined their original cradle (i.

Sheep in Species-Rich Temperate Grassland: Combining Behavioral Observations with Vegetation Characterization.

Foraging behavior of livestock in species-rich, less intensively managed grassland communities will require different methodologies from those appropriate in floristically simple environments. In this pilot study on sheep in species-rich grassland in northern Estonia, foraging behavior and the plant species of the immediate area grazed by the sheep were registered by continually-recording Go-Pro cameras. From three days of observation of five sheep (706 animal-minutes), foraging behavior was documented.

On the origin of European sheep as revealed by the diversity of the Balkan breeds and by optimizing population-genetic analysis tools.

Background: In the Neolithic, domestic sheep migrated into Europe and subsequently spread in westerly and northwesterly directions. Reconstruction of these migrations and subsequent genetic events requires a more detailed characterization of the current phylogeographic differentiation.

Results: We collected 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles of Balkan sheep that are currently found near the major Neolithic point of entry into Europe, and combined these data with published genotypes from southwest-Asian, Mediterranean, central-European and north-European sheep and from Asian and European mouflons.

Adaptive responses of animals to climate change are most likely insufficient.

Biological responses to climate change have been widely documented across taxa and regions, but it remains unclear whether species are maintaining a good match between phenotype and environment, i.e. whether observed trait changes are adaptive.

The use of cattle for restoring and maintaining holarctic landscapes: Conclusions from a long-term study (1946-2017) in northern England.

Cattle can perform valuable ecological functions in the maintenance of high nature value (HNV) pastoral systems. They have also attracted attention as potentially filling the ecological niches of megaherbivores, notably the extinct aurochs , in rewilding initiatives. Native cattle breeds are recognized under the 1992 Rio Convention as components of biodiversity.

Phenological sensitivity to climate across taxa and trophic levels.

Differences in phenological responses to climate change among species can desynchronise ecological interactions and thereby threaten ecosystem function. To assess these threats, we must quantify the relative impact of climate change on species at different trophic levels. Here, we apply a Climate Sensitivity Profile approach to 10,003 terrestrial and aquatic phenological data sets, spatially matched to temperature and precipitation data, to quantify variation in climate sensitivity.

Prospects and challenges for the conservation of farm animal genomic resources, 2015-2025.

Livestock conservation practice is changing rapidly in light of policy developments, climate change and diversifying market demands. The last decade has seen a step change in technology and analytical approaches available to define, manage and conserve Farm Animal Genomic Resources (FAnGR). However, these rapid changes pose challenges for FAnGR conservation in terms of technological continuity, analytical capacity and integrative methodologies needed to fully exploit new, multidimensional data.

Unique mitochondrial DNA in highly inbred feral cattle.

The Chillingham herd of wild Northumbrian cattle remains viable despite over 300 years of in-breeding and a near-homozygous nuclear genome. Here we report the complete mitochondrial DNA sequence using ultra-deep next generation sequencing. Random population sampling of ~10% of the extant herd identified a single mtDNA haplotype harbouring a unique bovine variant present in all other higher mammals (m.

Demographic consequences of increased winter births in a large aseasonally breeding mammal (Bos taurus) in response to climate change.

1. Studies examining changes in the scheduling of breeding in response to climate change have focused on species with well-defined breeding seasons. Species exhibiting year-round breeding have received little attention and the magnitudes of any responses are unknown.