Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T21:31:23.419Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coat structure and seasonal shedding in goats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

M. L. Ryder
M. L. Ryder
Affiliation:
A.R.C. Animal Breeding Research Organisation, Edinburgh 9
Get access

Extract

Monthly coat and skin samples were taken from three goats for one year in Australia, and from six others for two years in Scotland. The coat appeared to have a simple cycle of active growth in summer followed by inactivity in winter.

The kemp fibres of the outer coat formed brush ends at about the time of the autumn equinox and remained dormant until late spring. Follicles developed first in the foetus formed a brush first. No moult was obvious because new kemps grew before all the old ones had shed, the only manifestation of shedding being a shortening of the coat. The old wool tended to be lost before growth of the new, so that wool was completely lacking in the coat during summer.

Observations on skin sections showed that the majority of both kemp (primary) and under-wool (secondary) follicles become active immediately after the longest day, although there was a tendency for re-growth of wool fibres to be delayed, particularly in females.

Whereas the proportion of kemps with brush ends during winter reached 100%, the proportion among wool fibres was as low as 50%. A complete explanation for this is not yet evident. The bad winter of 1963 apparently caused a greater proportion of secondaries to form brush-ends earlier and to remain inactive longer.

Details are given of some of the histological features of brush formation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 1966 , pp. 289 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Brown, T. D., & Onions, W. J., 1960. Anomalies in the microscopic structure of some wools. Nature (Land.), 186: 186–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burns, M., 1953. Observations on the follicle population of Blackface sheep. J. agric. Sci., 43: 43–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, M., 1965. The skin histology of some Nigerian goats. Trop. Agric., Trin., 42: 42–243.Google Scholar
Burns, R. H., von Bergen, W., & Young, S. S., 1962. Cashmere and the undercoat of domestic and wild animals. J. Text. Inst., 53: T45–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margolena, L. A., 1959. Skin and hair follicle development in dairy goats. Virginia J. Sci., 10: 10–33.Google Scholar
Rougeot, J., 1961. The comparative effects of annual and semi-annual periodic variations of day length on the follicle cycles of short kemp fibres of the fleece of Limousine ewes. Relationship with their reproductive cycles. Ann. Biol. anim. Biochim. Biophys, 1: 1–85.Google Scholar
Ryder, M. L., 1956a. The pre-natal development of follicle population in the Romney lamb. J. agric. Sci., 47: 47–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryder, M. L., 1956b. Observations of nutritional and seasonal changes in the fleeces of some Masham sheep. J agric. Sci.,47: 47–129.Google Scholar
Ryder, M. L., 1958. Follicle arrangement in skin from wild sheep, primitive domestic sheep and in parchment. Nature (Land.), 182: 182–781.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ryder, M. L., 1960. A study of the coat of the Mouflon Ovis musimon with special reference to seasonal change. Proc. zool. Soc. Land., 135: 135–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryder, M. L., 1964. Moulting and hair replacement. In Rook, A., & Champion, R. H. (Eds.). Progress in the Biological Sciences in Relation to Dermatology-2. C.U.P., Cambridge.Google Scholar
Slee, J., 1959. Fleece shedding, staple-length and fleece weight in experimental Wiltshire Horn-Scottish Blackface crosses. J. agric. Sci., 53: 53–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slee, J., 1963. Birthcoat shedding in Wiltshire Horn lambs. Anim. Prod., 5: 5–301.Google Scholar
Straile, W. E., Chase, H. B., & Arsenault, C., 1961. Growth and differentiation of hair follicles between periods of activity and quiescence. J. exp. Zool., 148: 148–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watson, A., 1963. The effect of climate on the colour change of Mountain hares in Scotland. Proc. zool Soc. Land., 141: 141–823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar