وارد نمودن ژن چندقلوزایی FecB به گوسفند افشاری به روش MAI

The Booroola Merino carries a major autosomal mutation (FecB) which has a very large effect on the litter size of sheep. It is additive, so one copy of the gene means an extra 1 lamb born per 1 ewe lambing, and two copies inherited from both parent means an extra 1.5 lamb born per 1 ewe lambing. Genetic strategies to improve the profitability of sheep operations have generally focused on traits for reproduction. Afshari sheep is one of the most important meat breeds of Iran that also have good performance in milk traits. But from prolificacy point of view the sheep has twin birth less than 10 percent. As lamb production is an important source of income in all flocks, increasing the fecundity of the Afshari sheep has always been an important breeding goal. The low heritability of fertility traits and the desire to produce more lambs per ewe from meat and dairy breeds has lead to many crossbreeding programs seeking to obtain the benefits of the Booroola gene. In this paper a marker assisted introgression of FecB gene scheme is proposed to increase prolificacy of Afshari sheep. The objective of the breeding plan is to obtain a prolific Afshari-type breed without adverting the Afshari phenotype and adaptability.