Texel sheep

[4]: 932 The Texel is distributed in approximately thirty-five countries in Europe, the Americas and Oceania, with estimated populations of over 5000 head in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.

It is now one of the most common meat breeds in the Netherlands, making up seventy percent of the national flock.

Stock imported from France by the Animal Breeding Research Organisation in Scotland in 1970 was cross-bred with a variety of British breeds including the Border Leicester, Hampshire Down, Leicester, Lincoln and Southdown, leading to the development of the British Texel; a herd-book was started in 1972.

It is the most numerous British breed, with a population in the early twenty-first century of some 350000 ewes.

[9] A mutation in the 3' UTR of the myostatin gene in Texel sheep creates target sites for the microRNAs miR-1 and miR-206.

Three-year-old ram from the island of Texel
British Texel ewe with twin lambs near Erpingham in Norfolk