Clustering analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were conducted to elucidate the phylogenetic relationships among fi ve local sheep breeds (Wadi, Hu, Tong, Tan and Bayanbulak) on the basis of allele frequency data at fi ve loci (TF, ES, HB-β, XP and KE) encoding for the blood protein and non-protein systems and one locus (B2CHSWP) controlling the wool protein gene system. Other sheep breeds (Khalkha of Mongolia and Bhyanglung of Nepal) were included in the study for comparison. Diff erent electrophoretic, ion-densitometric and PCR-RFLP techniques were used to identify the polymorphisms of their systems. Using clustering analysis by the UPGMA method, two diff erent clusters consisting of the Wadi and Khalkha and the Hu and Bayanbulak were formed. Using the NJ method, similar relationships to the results obtained by the previous method were seen. Tan sheep correlated with these two cluster groups, following by correlation with the Tong sheep. From those results, both groups of the fat-tailed sheep of the Wadi, Tong and Tan and the fat-rumped sheep of the Bayanbulak and Hu were regarded as being the same and/or similar genetic tribe. The Bhyanglung sheep from Tibet markedly di- verged from the great group. This tendency resembled the results obtained by PCA. However, no clear phylogenetic distribution was found within the Chinese and Mongolian breed group ex- cept for the Tong by the PCA. The relative magnitude of such a genetic diff erentiation among the Chinese-Mongolian fat-tailed group, fat-rumped group and Tibetan short tailed group was estimated to be only 9.4%. Moreover, though the magnitude of differentiation between the Chinese-Mongolian fat-tailed group and fat-rumped group was lower, the diff erentiation in the combined group and the Tibetan short tailed group was 13%.

The objective of this study was to evaluate a feeding value of air dried ammoniated forage rice whole crop silage (AAFR) in sheep. Three crossbred Suff olk adult rams were fed the three experimental diets, AAFR and rolled corn (D1), timothy hay (TH) and rolled corn (D2) and TH as a sole diet (CON), in a one-way layout design. Each diet was fed to the animals for 14 days, respectively, and metabolism trial and blood sample collections were carried out for the last 5days of each period. Animals consumed their diets thoroughly. The apparent digestibility of organic matter (OM) was signifi cantly higher for D1 than that for D2, and the crude protein (CP) digestibility was signifi cantly lower for D1 than that for CON. The OM digestibility of AAFR was estimated to be higher than that of TH, inversely, the CP digestibility of AAFR was estimated to be lower than that of TH. The rates of nitrogen retention of D1 and CON were signifi cantly higher as compared with D2. Ruminal microbial yield and its synthesis effi ciency for D1 were lower than those for the other diets. The blood urea nitrogen concentration of D1 was numeri-cally lower than the other diets, although there was no statistical diff erence among the diets.The signifi cant diff erences in blood glucose concentration were observed among the diets, although the values were being within the normal physiological range. Our study suggests that AAFR can be used as a basal diet for feeding adult ram with maintenance purpose.