The sheep and goats form the backbone of financial safety systems and rural employment. The fertility rate increase and improvement in reproductive efficiency will eventually pave the way for farmers to benefit economically. Owing to the low heritability traits, it is difficult to accomplish reproductive enhancement through the selection process. In the present study, there are some SNPs in candidate gene BMP15 were genotyped for the prolificacy in a few breeds of sheep and goats to estimate association with the litter size. Differences in fecundity rate and litter size were observed within many types of breeds. At different loci in the BMP15 gene, many mutations were observed, contributing to the reproductive capability of examined breeds. Consequently, enormous efforts made in the search for genes that influence animal fecundity. The effect of many mutations in different breeds was highly significant in increasing the fertility rate in sheep and goat breeds.

Index Terms- BMP15gene, fertility, mutations, sheep, SNPs.