629

Summary of the discussion on July 2nd at Jokioinen

Because of the short time available for the symposium on July Ist, a discussion
session was arranged during a post-conference tour to Agricultural Research Centre,
Jokioinen, on July 2 nd. There was a lively discussion, in which the following problems
were raised:
* Early distribution of Finnsheep for studies in different countries and its motives.
* Criteria used for choosing animal samples from Finland (prolificacy and/or other

traits).
* Existence and kind of selection in the imported Finnsheep flocks.
* Utilization of Finnsheep genes in practical sheep production (systematic crossbreed-

ing or use in synthetics).
* Need of further research on Finnsheep (comparisons with Romanov, survival rates

of lambs, resistance to various diseases and its possible improvement, differences
between various crosses).

* Good and bad effects of Finnsheep genes on wool quality.
* Physiological and economic importance of locating fat to the kidney area instead

of subcutaneously.
* Most sensible criteria of feed conversion efficiency in sheep.
* Role of and ways in utilizing Booroola gene in sheep breeding.
* Problems of optimizing litter size in using Booroola gene as compared to using

otherwise prolific breeds.
* Relationships of major fertility genes found in different breeds (Booroola, Javanese,

Cambridge, Icelandic, others?).
* Consequences and problems of year-round lambings in D’Man sheep.
* Desirability and possibilities of testing most of the prolific breeds in common en-

vironment (possibilities of exporting D’Man breed for experiments in other coun-
tries or of testing the other prolific breeds in Morocco).

* Desirability and problems of increasing the number of teats (inheritance in increas-
ing the number of teats from 2 to 4 and from 4 onwards, or from non-functioning
to functioning, comparisons with beef cattle with 4 teats and 1 calf).