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Inhibitory Action of Artificial Light on the Sexual Season of the Ewe

Nature volume 168, page 336 (1951)Cite this article

Abstract

RECENT studies on photoperiodicity have been undertaken in an attempt to hasten the onset of the sexual season of sheep1–4, to extend the lactation period in goats, to accelerate the onset of œstrus in thoroughbred mares and to advance or prolong the egg-production season in pheasants5. Attempts to inhibit the sexual season are of considerable importance in solving certain problems of refractoriness of the gonads in the physiology of reproduction. Yeates3 has shown that the cessation of the sexual season of Suffolk sheep occurs after 14–16 weeks exposure to an increasing plane of artificial light.

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References

  1. Sykes, J. F., and Cole, C. L., Quart. Bull. Mich. Agric. Exp. Sta., No. 26, 250 (1944).

  2. Rep. Chief Bur. Anim. Indust. U.S. Dept. Agric., 23 (1948); 22 (1949).

  3. Yeates, N. T. M., J. Agric. Sci., 39, 1 (1949).

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  4. Hart, D. S., J. Agric. Sci., 40, 143 (1951).

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  5. Hammond, J., “Physiology of Reproduction”, edit. F. H. A. Marshall, Vol. 2 (Longmans, London, in the press).

  6. Harris, G. W., Physiol. Rev., 28, 139 (1948).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agriculture, Cambridge

    E. S. E. HAFEZ

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  1. E. S. E. HAFEZ
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HAFEZ, E. Inhibitory Action of Artificial Light on the Sexual Season of the Ewe. Nature 168, 336 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1038/168336a0

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