A total of one hundred and ten healthy dry ewes of Arabi sheep diffusive in three geographic locations in the north of Basrah (AL-Qurna, Al-Midaina and Al-Uazair) were divided into three different age groups: <1 year old, between 1-3 years old and >3 years old, to investigate the influence of geographic location and age on the concentration of some biochemical parameters of sheep in the south of Iraq. The results showed significant (P < 0.05) changes among geographic locations in some biochemical parameters such as cholesterol, glucose, estridol and growth hormone concentrations. No significant differences were presented in concentrations of total protein, albumin, Fe, phosphorus, ascorbic acid, LH, T3 and T4 hormones in the blood of ewes in different geographic locations. The concentrations of cholesterol, T3 and T4 hormones decreased significantly (P < 0.05), while, the concentrations of glucose and estradiol hormone increased significantly (P < 0.01) in adult ewes compared with younger ewes.

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A total of twenty-four healthy ewes aged between 2-3 years old and weighed about 35.09 kg of body weight were divided randomly into four groups (6 animals for each group). The first group included the non-treated control group, while the other three groups were subjected to various oral doses of melatonin 9 mg, 12 mg and 15 mg/head, respectively. All treatments were applied at 6 o'clock in the morning, to investigate the effect of treatment with melatonin during breeding season on reproductive performance and levels of some biochemical parameters in Arabi ewes from 1 May to 1 October 2017. Blood samples 7ml were collected after one hour of treatment and then monthly during the pregnancy months to determine the concentrations of biochemical parameters. After Postpartum, lambed ewes/lambs number, birth weight, placenta empty weight and cotyledon number were recorded. The results showed significant (P<0.05) improvement in reproductive performance (fertility percentage, twinning rate and the number of offspring) when ewes administrated melatonin at two doses (12 and 15 mg/ head). Also, melatonin administration caused significant (P<0.05) decrease in the concentrations of thyroxin, cortisol, and cholesterol. Conversely, there was a significant increase (P<0.05) in glucose concentration after 1 hour of treatment. The concentrations of thyroxin, cortisol, cholesterol, and vitamin C increased significantly (P<0.01) in early-gestation compared with mid and late-gestation, while the concentrations progesterone and glucose increased significantly (P<0.05) in midgestation compared with early and late-gestation. In conclusion, melatonin administration at doses 12 and 15 mg/ head improves ewe reproductive performance (fertility percentage, twinning rate and the number of born lambs). Additionally, the gestation stage has a negative effect on the concentrations of thyroxin, cholesterol and vitamin C.

The aim of the study was to detect polymorphism in the POU1F1 gene in Iraqi Awassi sheep breed, as well as to establish if haplotype of POU1F1 gene could be associated with productive traits. This study was carried out at Al-Kafeel station, Karbala city during the period of 01/10/2017 until 01/08/2018. The study included 46 Awassi ewes with their 52 lambs. The laboratory analyses were conducted at the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, College of Agriculture, University of Basrah. Results showed the successfulness of the PCR amplification process for all six examined fragments of the POU1F1 gene. Gel electrophoresis was conducted using agarose 2%, the product sizes were 637bp, 789bp, 999bp, 868bp, 1190 bp, and 469bp for the fragments P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, and P6 respectively. The analysis of the nitrogen bases sequences of the POU1F1 gene for the studied fragments showed a change in 12 different sites of the gene. These changes resulted in 7 haplotypes of H1-H7. The results showed significant influence (P<0.05) in haplotypes of the POU1F1 gene on birth weight . However, haplotypes showed no significant effect on lambs’ weights at weaning, six months and daily weight gains during all periods. Statistical analysis showed that different haplotypes of the POU1F1 gene did not influence on milk productive traits. The examined fragments of the POU1F1 Awassi gene have been submitted to Gene Bank under the accession numbers (LC469323 to LC469349).