Sheep Species.

The article presents abstracts of various papers related to sheep breeds that were presented during the symposium held on July 27, 2005 in Cincinnati, Ohio, which was organized by the American Dairy Science Association, the American Society of Animal Science, and the Canadian Society of Animal Science. One of the papers discussed is "Comparison of East Friesian and Lacaune Sheep Breeds for Dairy Production," by D.L. Thomas, Y.M. Berger, R.G. Gottfredson and T.A. Taylor. East Friesian and Lacaune dairy sheep germplasm was imported into North America in recent years to improve milk production of dairy sheep flocks. No studies have been reported on comparative performance of these two breeds in North America, and few studies are available from other countries. Another paper discussed is "Reproductive Performance and Milk Yield in Awassi and Its Crosses With Either Charollais or Romanov Breeds," by R. Kridli, A. Abdullah, N. AL-Smadi, and M. Momani-Shaker. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of Awassi or Awassi crossbred breed types on reproductive performance, milk production and composition and udder measurements. One hundred, 2- to 6-year-old multiparous ewes of three genotypes were used in the study. Upon lambing, ewes and their offspring were placed in a large pen in which they remained until the end of the experiment.