Genetic variation at 53 protein-coding loci (25 polymorphic) was analysed for 17 water buffalo populations-12 swamp, three Lankan and two of the Murrah breed (river type), to determine the magnitude of genetic differentiation and the genetic relationships among the populations. In accord with previous cytological studies, the Lankan buffalo clearly are river type. Significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were shown for a number of locus-population combinations, with all populations but one showing significant heterogeneity in these deviations among loci. By contrast, heterogeneity among populations for each locus was much less, indicating locus-specific deviations, which suggest selection affecting allele frequencies at some loci. There was significant genetic differentiation among populations of both the swamp and river types. The differentiation among the swamp populations may reflect the geography of south-east Asia and the presumed spread of the swamp buffalo through this region. Phylogenies derived from pairwise genetic distance estimates show the clear separation of swamp and river types, but the topology of the swamp populations shows rather poor consistency with their geographic locations. For at least one population (Australia), it is clear that bottleneck effects have distorted the phylogenetic topology. Average genetic distances for both the swamp and river types, as compared with previous studies of livestock breeds, show that the genetic differentiation of each of these sets of populations is of the same order of magnitude as that among well-recognized and established breeds of other species.

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The objective of this study was to investigate growth patterns of goats utilizing data from a crossbreeding program involving the exotic German Fawn (GF) and the indigenous Kambing Katjang (KK) goats. Growth curve models and growth curve parameters were compared and analyzed for different genotypes and litter types. A total of 20,393 weight-age data from 208 female goats belonging to various crossbreeding genotypes were individually fitted to four growth curve models (Brody, Bertalanffy, Gompertz and Logistic). The goodness of fit was highest in the Brody model in most cases. A comparison of R2 among genotypes showed that they were highest for KK. There were no significant differences of genotypes for estimated mature weight in the Brody model. The estimated mature weights for KK were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than for GF × KK (F1), backcrosses with 75% GF genes (BC) and F1 × F1 (F2) in the other models. The correlations between estimated mature weights and the maturing rates were lowest for BC. The genotype significantly (P < 0.01) affected the age at the constant degree of maturity (67% and 90% of mature weight) in all models. The BC genotype was the youngest at maturity and KK the oldest. All models well expressed the growth pattern of the target animals when they were older than 2.5 years of age. The results from the present study showed that the growth pattern may be altered by crossbreeding of KK with the GF breed.

Summary Corpora lutea were obtained at laparotomy between days 17 and 25 of the menstrual cycle from nine patients who received 75 μg. Norgestrel daily from the first day of the cycle and from six patients not receiving Norgestrel. All of the control patients had normal corpora lutea which contained significant amounts of progesterone and all except one of the corpora lutea were able to synthesize progesterone in vitro. Oestrogen excretion was within the normal range in all except one patient. Pregnanediol excretion was more variable but plasma progesterone levels showed adequate in vivo luteal function. In all except one of the treated patients a normal corpus luteum was found and oestrogen excretion was within the normal range but pregnanediol excretion and plasma progesterone levels were below the normal range. Only two of the corpora lutea contained progestrone and only one was able to synthesize progesterone from pregnenolone on incubation in vitro. Thus administration of small doses of Norgestrel appeared to reduce the ability of the corpus luteum to produce progesterone and this may be one of the ways in which Norgesterel exerts an antifertility effect. This in vivo finding was supported by showing that low concentrations of Norgestrel inhibited the in vitro synthesis of progestrone by normal corpora lutea.

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