Dairy Sheep Symposium - the Department of Animal Sciences ...

Present Development of Selection Schemes in Dairy Sheep
In the last ICAR (International Committee for Animal Recording) congress held in Slovenia
in 2000 a report of the working group on sheep milk recording was presented (Astruc and
Barillet, 2000) whose milk recording results are shown in Table 1. For breeds with a relevant
number of recorded flocks, milk yield is high for Lacaune, Sarda, Assaf and Valle del Belice. For
the rest of the breeds, yield ranges are generally between 1 and 1.2 l/day.
Table 1. Flocks and number of head under official milk recording and performances in the main
European breeds (Elaborated from Astruc and Barillet, 2000)
Breed Country Population
size
Recorded
flocks
Recorded
ewes
% of
breed
Milk yield (l)
(length in days) *
Assaf & Israel 46,200 17 10,950 23.7 Assaf: 320 [a]
Awassi
Awassi: 530 [a] **
Churra Spain 750,000 72 27,150 3.6 119 [ref:120] [a]
Comisana Italy 750,000 724 101,220 13.5 176 [b]
Corse France 100,000 71 16,942 16.9 108 (170) [b]
Karagouniki Greece 210,000 258 17,750 8.5
Lacaune France 825,000 384 165,932 20.1 270 (165) [b]
Latxa
(Black Faced)
Spain 277,400 166 61,747 22.3 126 [ref:120] [a]
Latxa
(Blond Faced)
Spain 160,800 61 21,659 13.5 126 [ref:120] [a]
Lesvos Greece 180,000 94 10,300 5.7
Manech &
Basco-
Bearnaise
France 470,000 352 98,673 21.0 125 (141) [b]
Manchega Spain 925,000 100 38,844 4.2 153 [ref:120] [a]
Sarda Italy 4,700,000 1,168 195,610 4.2 193 [b]
Tsigai Slovak
Rep.
89,000 49 14,397 16.2 97 [b]
Valachian Slovak
Rep
118,000 68 25,257 21.4 105 [b]
Valle del
Belice
Italy 60,000 365 48,229 80.4 188 [b]
* [a] total milk yield, taking into account the milk consumed by the lamb; [b] milk yield during
the milking period
** Only one flock recorded
From Table 2 it can be seen that considerable investments are being made in selection,
especially in France, Italy and Spain. Genetic responses per year for Spanish races have been
estimated between 1 and 2% (Ugarte et al., 2001). Phenotypic responses are normally more
important due to the general improvement in the management; for example in the Churra breed,
the mean in 120 days lactation has increased from 100 to 120 litres in 12 years (from 1987 to
1998) for the whole population under recording (De la Fuente, 2001). In the Manchega breed the
mean in total milk yield has increased from 147 to 166 between 1990 and 2000 (CERSYRA,
2001). For Latxa Black Faced the phenotypic response from 1987 to 2000 has been of 18 litres
and for Latxa Blond Faced of 31 litres (Ugarte, 2000).