NL Journal of Veterinary and Animal Nutrition

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The Need for Phenotypic, Reproductive, Genetic and Genomic Characterization in South African Bosvelder Sheep: A Narrative Review

Author(s) : Nhlakanipho Sam Zulu*, Khoboso Christine Lehloenya, Khanyisile Hadebe, Tlou Caswell Chokoe, Julius Se-bei, Thomas Raphulu, Bohani Mtileni, Mable Nkadimeng, Tlou Matelele, Tumudi Mphahlele, Fhulufhelo Vin-cent Ramukhithi.

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Abstract

The Bosvelder sheep is an emerging South African breed developed from crossing the local Bapedi with commercial White Dorper and Van Rooy breeds. This narrative review addresses the necessity for organized phenotypic, reproduction, and genetics characterization of developed sheep breeds such as Bosvelder to determine the key areas where it is necessary to improve their reproductive efficiency and productivity. The paper has com-piled the existing literature about the phenotypic characteristics, semen, and implementation of the modern techniques such as Genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and sin-gle nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in sheep. Much attention was paid to the connection between phenotypic and sperm characteristics, genetic diversity, and the identification of the genomic regions or the candidate genes responsible for the reproduction performance. The absence of a well-organized research basis contributed to the fact that the Bosvelder sheep is still not officially recognized. This paper covers some of the breeding-related research and targeted breeding programs aimed to achieve the full potential of Bosvelder sheep that would be profitable in terms of practical application which would allow adding this breed to the gene pool contributing to the sustainable development and livestock improvement in South Africa. Keywords: Developed sheep, Breeding soundness, Phenotypic traits, Semen quality, Reproductive efficiency.

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