Oves

Things to know about sheep

If you're interested in sheep, you will sooner or later come along some technical terms which are infrequently used in the colloquial speech. Furthermore, it is often hard to find these terms in dictionaries.

Therefore, here we present a small collection of terms in the hope to ease understanding. Beyond that, you'll find information about sheep.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

abomasum

Fourth section of the stomach of ruminants

artiodactyls

Together with other ruminating (e. g. camels, cattle and goats) and non-ruminating (e. g. pigs) mammals, sheep are subsumed in the order Artiodactyla, as opposed to other orders of ungulates, e. g. perissodactyls.
The first phalanx of artiodactyls (thumb, big toe) is reduced, the second and fifth phalanges (index and little finger) are scaled down. Thus, artiodactyls are walking on phalanges corresponding to the middle and ring fingers of humans.

broken mouth

Periodontitis by which sheep of mostly older age loose their permanent incisors.

castrate

Remove the gonads. This technique is often applied to rams in order to influence which male animals are actively breeding.

chymosin

Enzyme that is used during cheese production.

claw

End limb of the of artiodactyls, which is homologous to the hooves of perissodactyls and the finger nails of humans, respectively.

cloven hoofed animals

Together with goats, cattle, pigs and others, sheep belong to the mammalian order of cloven hoofed animals or artiodactyls, as opposed to the odd-toed ungulates or perissodactyls.

corner tooth

Used synonymously to canine tooth, eg. in Cocquyt, Driessen and Simoens: Variability in the eruption of the permanent incisor teeth in sheep, Veterinary Record, November 2005, Vol. 157, p. 619-623

curd

Gelatinous substance which develops during cheese manufacturing. As soon as → chymosin is added to milk,

chymosin: Enzyme that is used during cheese production

→ whey

whey: Aqueous fluid, which develops during cheese production

separates in the course of 1 hour from the curd. Curd is further processed into cheese. For this, it is - depending on the flavour of cheese - separated from the whey, pressed, seasoned, treated with mold spores and finally subject to a maturation process lasting for one or several months.

dam

Female sheep which has already given birth to a lamb.

Dolly

The sheep Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned. Dolly was born on July 5^th 1996 in Roslin-Institute in Schottland. Her existance was reported on February 27^th 1997 in the renowned journal Nature. Dolly had to be euthanized on February 14^th 2003 due to an incurable lung adenomatosis (a virus infection). During her short life, she gave birth (by the natural way) to three lambs. The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh presents detailed information about Dolly.

eruption times of teeth

Just like humans, sheep undergo an exchange of their dentition during ontogenesis, thereby replacing their deciduous teeth by permanent ones.

Time of eruption
Tooth	Source: Dr. Stefan Schwickert: TSE-Probenentnahmeschulung Schaf	Source: Gerold Rahmann: Ökologische Schaf- und Ziegenhaltung	Source: Spence and Aitchison: Clinical aspects of dental disease in sheep, In Practice, July 1986, Vol. 8, p. 128-135	Source: Cocquyt, Driessen, and Simoens: Variability in the eruption of the permanent incisor teeth in sheep, Veterinary Record, November 2005, Vol. 157, p. 619-623
I1	15 - 18 months	12 - 18 months	10 - 19 months	10 - 24 months
I2	20 - 25 months	24 - 30 months	18 - 26 months	15 - 30 months
I3	27 - 35 months	30 - 36 months	23 - 36 months	24 - 42 months
C	36 - 45 months	42 - 48 months	30 - 48 months	32 - 54 months
P1-P3	ca. 24 months		18 - 30 months
M1	3 months		3 - 5 months
M2	9 months		9 - 12 months
M3	18 months		18 - 24 months

ewe

Female sheep

foot and mouth disease

Infectious disease of artiodactyls

gestation period

After a gestation period of 5 months, one or - less often - two (and very seldom more) lamb(s) is/are born.

gummer

Sheep which has lost its incisors due to broken mouth.

lamb

Young sheep

Looping ill

Virus encephalitis of sheep transmitted by ticks, caused by flavi viruses. The disease is related to (russian) tick-borne encephalitis.

omasum

Third section of the stomach of ruminants

ovine

Pertaining to sheep

perissodactys

Group of ungulates which are opposed to, e. g. artiodactyls. Typical members of perissodactyls are horses, rhinoceroses and tapirs.

ram

Male sheep (synonymous to tup)

reticulum

Second section of the stomach of ruminants

rumen

First section of the stomach of ruminants

ruminants

Suborder of artiodactyls, which are characterized by a four-chambered stomach. This stomach is structured into rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum and enables ruminants, due to the microbes living in their stomachs, to digest cellulose.
Ruminants chew their food twice. During the first chewing act, the food is shred, mixed with saliva and then swallowed. It arrives in the rumen, which is inhabitated by a multitude of microbes (bacteria and ciliates). These microbes macerate the main constituent of herbal food, cellulose, and thereby make it finally easy to digest. 1 ml rumen contents of a sheep can harbour close to one million ciliates. From the rumen, the food reaches the reticulum, from where it is regurgitated about one hour after ingestion. Interestingly, the part of the ruminants' brain responsible for regurgitation lies at a comparable topological location as the part of the human brain which governs vomiting. After chewing the food for a second time, it is swallowed again and reaches the rumen and reticulum once more. Components of the food that are reduced to small pieces are forwarded to the omasum. After removal of water, the bolus reaches the abomasum, which is comparable to the stomach of humans and where strictly speaking the digestion takes place.

Scrapie

Infectious disease of sheep, which was described for the first time in the year 1750. It is believed that the way of transmission is via the afterbirth. Scrapie is related to Mad Cow Disease (BSE) and similar ailments affecting other mammals (cats, elk, exotic ungulates, mink, moose). The disease is inevitably fatal. With enactment of August 23^rd 2004, the European Union has decreed Commission Regulation 1492/2004, regulating the preferred breeding of PrP genotype A₁₃₆R₁₅₄R₁₇₁, which features an increased resistance against conventional scrapie.

systematic order

The systematic order describes the relationships between all living beings. Sheep are classified in the system like this:

Taxon	Name
Domain	Eucaryota
Regnum	Animalia (animals)
Subregnum	Metazoa (multicellular animals)
Division	Eumetazoa
Subdivision	Bilateria
Stem group	Deuterostomia
Phylum	Chordata
Subphylum	Vertebrata/Craniota (vertebrates)
Superclassis	Gnathostomata
(Intermediate taxon)	Tetrapoda
(Intermediate taxon)	Amniota
Classis	Mammalia (mammals)
Subclassis	Theria
Infraclassis	Eutheria/Placentalia
Superordo	Laurasiatheria
(Intermediate taxon)	Paraxonia
(Intermediate taxon)	Cetartiodactyla
Ordo	Artiodactyla (cloven hoofed animals)
Subordo	Ruminantia (ruminants)
Infraordo	Pecora
Familia	Bovidae
Subfamilia	Caprinae
Genus	Ovis (sheep)
Spezies	Ovis (orientalis) aries (domestic sheep)

tooth formula

Due to their nutrition, sheep have a different number and form of teeth than humans. In the deciduous dentition, there are only 3 premolars in each upper jaw, while the lower jaw has 3 incisors, 1 caninus and 3 premolars, which sums up to 20 teeth. This results in the following tooth formula:

maxilla (upper jaw)
-	-	-	-	p1	p2	p3

i1	i2	i3	c1	p1	p2	p3
mandible (lower jaw)

A sheep's permanent dentition consists of 3 premolars and 3 molars in the upper jaw and 3 incisors, 1 caninus, 3 premolars and 3 molars in the lower jaw, which sums up to 32 teeth. The corresponding tooth formula is this:

maxilla (upper jaw)
-	-	-	-	P1	P2	P3	M1	M2	M3

I1	I2	I3	C1	P1	P2	P3	M1	M2	M3
mandible (lower jaw)

Due to their form, which is similar to incisors, canini are sometimes referred to as 4. incisors, which is not correct.
So, different from humans, sheep cannot bite off, because they are lacking the necessary upper incisors. Instead, they have a keratinized pad in the maxilla, which acts as antagonist for the mandibular incisors, enabling sheep to fix and pluck the grass.

tup