The objective of present study was to investigate renal clearance, urinary excretion and underlying excretory mechanism of marbofloxacin in Lohi sheep. For this purpose, marbofloxacin was administered intravenously (IV) as single bolus dose (2.5 mg/kg body weight) to eight healthy sheep of Lohi breed. After start of experiment, blood and urine samples were drawn at predetermined time intervals and marbofloxacin concentrations in the samples were measured by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) using UV/Vis detector. The mean ± SD values of creatinine in plasma and urine were 15.37 ± 0.65 µg/ml and 246.7 ± 48.05 µg/ml, respectively. Glomerular filtration rate was 1.29 ± 0.22 ml/min/kg whereas urinary flow rate was observed to be 0.084 ± 0.016 ml/min/kg. The renal clearance of marbofloxacin in Lohi sheep was 9.45 ± 2.12 ml/min/kg. Cumulative percentage dose excreted was seen to be maximum at 24 h post drug administration. It was concluded that renal handling of marbofloxacin in Lohi sheep involved both glomerular filtration and active tubular secretion.

The aim of this study was to investigate the nucleotide diversity and the phylogenetic analysis of pancreatic ribonuclease gene in two different species, Baluchi and Urial sheep. Baluchi sheep blood samples were collected from Abbas Abad Animal Breeding Center, Mashhad and Urial sheep blood samples were collected from Khorasan Razavi Environmental Department. The 4347 bp pancreatic ribonuclease gene was amplified and sequenced using seven primer pairs that were designed to overlap each other. Comparison of 4347 bp pancreatic ribonuclease gene sequences obtained from both Baluchi and Urial sheep strains showed 10 nucleotide differences with 99.78% similarity. Also results of comparison of pancreatic ribonuclease gene from the sheep reference genome (Accession number of XM_004010384) with Urial sheep and Baluchi showed differences in 18 nucleotides with 99.61% similarity and 10 nucleotides with 99.78% similarity, respectively. The results of the present study confirmed that although the pancreatic ribonuclease coding enzyme sequences of the two species, Baluchi and Urial and the reference gene sequences from the NCBI database are completely similar, but the upstream and downstream nucleotide sequences of this gene have 10 nucleotide differences with each other. There are 18 nucleotide differences with the sheep reference sequence. Results of genetic interval matrix and phylogenetic tree sequences of Baluchi sheep and Urial sheep obtained in this study with other gene sequences registered from pancreatic ribonuclease in the NCBI database, it confirmed that both Baluchi and Urial sheep species with the sheep reference sequence for pancreatic ribonuclease gene sequence were assigned to a goat species belonged to the same clade.

The purpose of present study is to analysis price volatility spillover effects on vertical levels of mutton markets in East Azerbaijan province, among three levels of inputs and the mutton retail and farm levels. Thus, the Multivariate Threshold Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (MV-TGARCH) model by BEKK technique was used whit weekly price data from 1377 to 1390. The results showed that the highest rate of price volatility spillovers bidirectional occurs from the production inputs market to mutton retail market and the lowest is from mutton market to the production inputs. As to be considered that the supply factors cause creation of price fluctuations in mutton market more than demand factors. Therefore controlling price fluctuations of production inputs can help to manage price risk in the mutton market. So focus on supply-side factors of the lamb to controlling price volatility in this market is recommended.

Most leptospiral infections in sheep and goat are asymptomatic but may result in high fever, abortion, stillbirth, agalactiae. There is a different foraging behavior between sheep and goat that may cause the different prevalence of Leptospira interrogans infection in sheep and goats.
The purpose of the present study was to compare the prevalence of L. interrogans antibodies in sheep and goats.
Blood samples were taken from 246 sheep and 210 goats in 12 herds from 8 areas of Ahvaz where the animals were kept together. Sera were initially screened at dilution of 1:100 against 8 live serovars of L. intrrogans: pomana, canicola, hardjo, ballom, ictrohaemorrhagiae, grippotyphosa, tarasovi and australis using the microscopic agglutination test (MAT).
The prevalence of leptospiral infection was 8.53% in sheep and 10.95% in goats. The highest reacting leptospira in both species was L.i. Pomona with a reactor rate of 68.18% in sheep and 56% in goats, followed in descending order by ictrohaemorrhagiae (18.8%), canicula, hardjo and grippotyphosa (each of them 4.54%), in sheep and ictrohaemorrhagiae (28%), canicula (16%) in goats. Statistical analysis showed that were no significant differences between sheep and goat (P=0.428). There were no significant differences among age groups in sheep (p=0.301) and goats (p= 0.363), but there was a tendency in adults sheep and goats (≥3years) to be more seropositive than young sheep and goats. Seroprevalence of leptospiral infection among various areas in sheep (p= 0.464) and goats (p= 0.710) was also not significantly different.
It is concluded that there is no difference between sheep and goats in terms of leptospiral infection when they are kept together in the same herd and husbandry condition.

Due to uncontrolled crosses, the genetic purity of sheep breeds has changed. Therefore, using of genetic markers of mitochondrial sequencing is one the ways to study these changes. This experiment carried out to evaluate the diversity of HVR-I region from mtDNA in Afshari sheep breed. For conducting this study, the blood samples were collected from 20 unrelated Afshari sheep breed. After DNA extraction, this region of mtDNA was amplified with specific primers using PCR, and then the desired region was sequenced. After analyzing the data, 5 genetic haplotypes were determined in the studied population. Then the HRV-I region of Afshari breed were compared with other sheep breeds and results showed that this breed belongs to haplogroup A. The phylogenetic tree showed that this breed has the lowest genetic distance from other two Iranian sheep breeds (Balochi and Moghani). It can be concluded that Ovis orial may be the origin of Afshari and other Iranian sheep breeds.

Generally, most feeds used in livestock nutrition are deficient in some nutrients, and require nutritional supplements. Among the supplements, micro and macro minerals are particular importance. Selenium (Se) plays an important role in the reproductive function and immune system and is known as an antioxidant and catalyst for the production of thyroid hormone. It is believed that low selenium absorption in ruminants is due to the deficiency of selenium in ration and its conversion into insoluble form (Peterson and Spedding 1963; Surai 2006). Nano-particles are smaller and more active than larger particles. The importance of Selenium for rumen microorganisms are not entirely clear. The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of nano-selenium on activity of whole population of microorganisms, bacteria and fungi, which isolated from the rumen liquid of sheep and goats.
Material and The experimental sample in the present experiment was a basal diet including: 29% barley grain, 25% wheat bran, 20% wheat straw, 25% corn silage, 1% selenium-free mineral-vitamin supplement. In the present experiment 0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 ppm nano-Se was added to the basal standard diet of sheep and goats, then digestibility and fermentation parameters of diets were measured by the rumen fluid of sheep and goats in vitro. The rumen fluid was taken through the stomach tube from four Najdi goat and Arabi sheep before the morning meal, mixed separately, filtered using four layers of cheesecloth, and potted in a flask content warm water. These animals were fed with a diet, approximately similar to basal ration, but without selenium, about three weeks. Gas production of the basal diet containing different levels of nano-Se was determined using the Menke and Steingass (1988) in six replications. The rumen fluid was mixed with artificial saliva (1:2 ratio, respectively) in lab, and then nano-Se levels added to it. The gas production was recorded at zero, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours after the start of incubation in water bath. The gas production data were analyzed using the exponential model and the gas production parameters were calculated (Ørskov and McDonald, 1979). Two steps digestion (Tilley and Terry 1963) method in six replications was used to measure digestibility of experimental diets. The rumen fluid and buffer was prepared as mentioned for gas production experiment. Isolation and purification of bacteria and fungi, and studying the effect of nano selenium on their digestibile activity conducted by preparing the specific medium cultures of ruminal anaerobic bacteria or fungi according to recommended method (Zhang et al., 2007; Mohammadabadi et al. 2012).
The highest digestibility of dry matter (DM) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) of experimental diets in sheep and goats were for the level of 0.6 ppm nano-Se that was higher than control diet (P Therefore, the use of nano-Se resulted to increase digestibility and fermentation of nutrients by whole rumen microorganisms and bacteria of both species.

According to evolutionary and systematic view, Ovis is one of the most complicated species in mammals. The Iran’s central plateau with high and widespread mountains is an ideal natural habitat for wild sheep. The Haftad Gholleh Protected Area is located in the center of this plateau. Consequently, a large population of these wild sheep species can be found in this area. The present study was carried out with respect to morphological features of wild sheep including horn, color and patterns that was obtained using camera trapping records, quarry as well as direct observation of wild sheep in Haftad Golleh area. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS16 software. The research results indicate that there are three sub-species of wild sheep in Haftad Gholleh Protected Area. Two previous described species namely Armenian (Ovis ammon gmelini) and Isfahan (Ovis orientalis isphahanica) species and one new proposed sub-species or hybrid named as Arak wild sheep (Ovis orientalis arakica). The distribution of Isfahan and Armenian species has extended to Haftad Gholleh Protected Area. The highest number of population in wild sheeps belonged to Isfahan, Arak and Armenian species, respectively. Future study should be focused on parallel morphometric and genetic survey to clarify the status of the proposed sub species in Haftad Gholleh Protected Area