Íslenskar landbúnaðarrannsóknir - 01.03.1970, Page 110

108 ÍSLENZKAR LANDBUNAÐARRANNSÓKNIR
0 per cent and for the badgerface lambs 84
and 47 per cent white fibres.
Tbe mouflon pattern thus shows far
greater variation than found by Roberts
and White (1930 a, 1930 b) who regarded
their reversed badgerface (Berge’s mouflon)
to show remarkably little variation com-
pared with the badgerface. Roberts ancl
White also stress that on parting the fleece
of the reversed badgerface animals on the
dorsal side, the base of the staple showed
the same colouration as found in ordinary
black or brown sheep.
The mouflon animal (Berge, 1964 a)
with the highest percentage of white fibres
on the back far exceeds the highest percent-
age of wliite founcl in the grey animals, but
is comparable to the highest number of
white fibres obtained fronr badgerface.
These figures and the use of the belly
colour as one of the main criteria in the
classification of the two patterns, indicates
that badgerface-mouflon animals occurring
in Berge’s (1964 a) study might have been
classified as mouflons, particularly if they
were of the darker type.
Berge (1964 a) concludes that mouflon
is dominant to badgerface and that the two
possibly are alleles, as mouflon X rnouflon
have not given any badgerface, and badger-
face X badgerface never have given any
mouflon.
The general conclusion reached by
Brooker and Dolling (1969 a), in their
studies on inheritance of patterns in non-
white Merinos, was tliat the genes for white,
badgerface, mouflon (reversed badgerface)
and selfcolour were allelic and in decreas-
ind order of dominance. The dominance
of badgerface over mouflon and selfcolour,
and of mouflon over selfcolour, however,
was not always found to be complete.
This lack of clearcut dominance rela-
tionship is in contradiction to the results
of the present study.
The high incidence of unclassified ani-
mals in their study (19 unclassified vs. 141
classified in inter se matings of nonwhite
parents) renders a discussion of the reasons
for the discrepancy of doubtful value.
The difference between earlier results
and the results in the present study with
respect to the dominance relationship be-
tween the badgerface and mouflon patterns
can to a large extent have been due to the
lack of recognition of the badgerface-mou-
flon phenotype.
2. Grey.
The inheritance of grey colour in non-
white sheep where the nonwhite condition
is recessive (or hypostatic) to white has
been studied by Dry (1926, 1927), Vasin
(1928), Zóphóníasson (1934), Löfvenberg
and Johansson (1952), Morais et. al. (1953),
Berge (1958, 1964 a) and Skárman (1961,
1963 a, b).
There is considerable disagreement be-
tween these authors as to the inheritance
of grey.
Dry concluded that white, grey and black
formed an epistatic series. His conclusion
regarding the relation between grey ancl
white is based on the occurrence of some
grey progeny (exact numbers not stated)
from a white ram and black ewes, and
several black lambs from tliis same white
ram and black ewes.
Vasin concludes that the gene for grey
(wr) seems to have an intermediate mode
of inheritance, predominantly recessive. His
data on its inheritance are very limited.
Zóphóníasson found that grey usually was
dominant to absence of grey in nonwhite
sheep, but he also observed several grey
progeny out of black X black and black X
brown matings.
Löfvenberg and Johansson also found
that grey usually behaved as if it were epi-
static to black, but they also found several
exceptions from that rule and concluded