The Fat-Tailed Sheep of East Africa

Epstein, H.

doi:10.1080/03670074.1954.11664946

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…African sheep are thought to be of Near‐Eastern origin (Epstein 1954, 1971; Ryder 1984; Marshal 2000). The earliest sheep in Africa were thin‐tailed and hairy and introduced to East Africa through North Africa (Marshal 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second wave of sheep introduction to Africa included fat‐tailed sheep entering North Africa via the Isthmus of Suez straits and East Africa via straits of Bab‐el‐Mandeb (Ryder 1984). Fat‐rumped sheep entered East Africa much later (Epstein 1954, 1971; Ryder 1984). Accordingly, African sheep have been traditionally described and classified based on their tail type (Epstein 1971; Ryder 1984).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Population structure, genetic variation and morphological diversity in indigenous sheep of Ethiopia

et al. 2007

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We investigated genetic and morphological diversity and population structure of 14 traditional sheep populations originating from four ecological zones in Ethiopia (sub-alpine, wet highland, sub-humid lowland and arid lowland). All animals (n = 672) were genotyped for 17 microsatellite markers and scored for 12 morphological characters. The sheep were initially classified as fat-tailed (11 populations), thin-tailed (one population) and fat-rumped sheep (two populations). These classifications are thought to correspond to three consecutive introduction events of sheep from the Near-East into East Africa. For the 14 populations, allelic richness ranged from 5.87 to 7.51 and expected heterozygosity (H(E)) from 0.66 to 0.75. Genetic differentiations (F(ST) values) between all pairs of populations, except between sub-alpine populations, were significantly different from zero (P < 0.001). Cluster analysis of morphological characters and a dendrogram constructed from genetic distances were broadly consistent with the classification into fat-tailed, thin-tailed and fat-rumped sheep. Bayesian cluster analysis using microsatellite markers indicated that there has been further genetic differentiation after the initial introduction of sheep into Ethiopia. Investigation of factors associated with genetic variation showed that an isolation-by-distance model, independently of other factors, explained most of the observed genetic variation. We also obtained a strong indication of adaptive divergence in morphological characters, patterns of morphological variation being highly associated with ecology even when the effect of neutral genetic divergence (F(ST)) was parcelled out in partial Mantel tests. Using a combination of F(ST) values, Bayesian clustering analysis and morphological divergence, we propose a classification of Ethiopian sheep into six breed groups and nine breeds.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population structure, genetic variation and morphological diversity in indigenous sheep of Ethiopia

et al. 2007

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“…This common phenomenon may offer a clue to the origin of the fat-rumped sheep. It is unlikely that they were evolved from thintailed sheep by selection, as were the fat-tailed sheep (Epstein, 1954a;1954b), or that they were evolved independently of the latter, although the tendency to accumulate fat on the rump is noted in several thin-tailed breeds of sheep which are docked at an early age. The Cotswold and Romney Marsh breeds, Lydekker (1912) writes, "exhibit a marked tendency to accumulate fat on the rump almost to the degree of producing a deformity".…”

Section: Blackhead Persian Rainmentioning

confidence: 94%

The Fat-Rumped Sheep of East Africa

Epstein

1957

The East African Agricultural Journal

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“…All three of these breeds have several notable characteristics (see Figure 1). They have coarse hair, rather than wool, and a significant fatty deposit at the base of the tail and are regarded as drought tolerant and hardy [6,50,51,[54][55][56][57].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…have coarse hair, rather than wool, and a significant fatty deposit at the base of the tail and are regarded as drought tolerant and hardy [6,50,51,[54][55][56][57]. Mitochondrial diversity in domesticated sheep clusters in to five haplogroups designated A-E [58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal Relationships among Ancient and Modern Southern African Sheep: Newly Discovered Mitochondrial Haplogroups

Horsburgh

Beckett

Gosling

2022

Biology

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We investigated the genetic diversity and historic relationships among southern African sheep as well as the relationships between them and sheep outside the continent by sourcing both archaeological and modern sheep samples. Archaeological sheep samples derived from the site Die Kelders 1, near Cape Town, date to approximately 1500 years ago. The modern samples were taken as ear snips from Damara, Namaqua Afrikaner, and Ronderib Afrikaner sheep on a farm in Prieska in the Northern Cape. Illumina sequencing libraries were constructed for both ancient and modern specimens. Ancient specimens were enriched for the mitochondrial genome using an in-solution hybridization protocol and modern specimens were subjected to shotgun sequencing. Sequences were mapped to the Ovis aries reference genome, assigned to haplogroups and subhaplogroups, and used to calculate a phylogenetic tree using previously published, geographically dispersed mitochondrial genome sheep sequences. Genetic diversity statistics show that southern African sheep have lower diversity than sheep in other regions. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that many modern southern African sheep are likely descended from prehistoric indigenous sheep populations and not from sheep imported from Europe during the historic period.

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The Fat-Tailed Sheep of East Africa

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

Population structure, genetic variation and morphological diversity in indigenous sheep of Ethiopia

Population structure, genetic variation and morphological diversity in indigenous sheep of Ethiopia

The Fat-Rumped Sheep of East Africa

Maternal Relationships among Ancient and Modern Southern African Sheep: Newly Discovered Mitochondrial Haplogroups

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