Reintroduction of the local breeds of sheep and goats in Malta

Transcription

1 Reintroduction of the oca breeds of sheep and goats in Mata Bunde R. in Gabiña D. (ed.). Strategies for sheep and goat breeding Zaragoza : CIHEAM Cahiers Options Méditerranéennes; n pages Artice avaiabe on ine / Artice disponibe en igne à adresse : To cite this artice / Pour citer cet artice Bunde R. Reintroduction of the oca breeds of sheep and goats in Mata. In : Gabiña D. (ed.). Strategies for sheep and goat breeding. Zaragoza : CIHEAM, p (Cahiers Options Méditerranéennes; n. 11)

2 ~ CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes Reintroduction of the oca breeds of sheep and goats in Mata R. BLUNDELL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE GOVERNMENT FARM FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT GHAMMER MARSA, MALTA SUMMARY - The number of goats and sheep in Mata has decreased consideraby especiay in the Matese oca breeds. A program for increasing these Matese goats began in 1994, and the mainy invoves the coection of Matese breeds of sheep and goats from farmers, importing Matese goats and sheep from abroad, and then restocking the farmers the seected possiby pure Matese breeds. In parae with thisproject,amethodusinggeneticmarkersisbeingdeveoped to hep in the seection of these animas. Key words: Matese breeds, genetic seection programmes, genetic markers. RESUME - Les popuations de chèvres et de moutons ont fortement diminué à chepte a débuté présentes dans es fermes, puis en réimportant ces races mataises afin de restituer aux agricuteurs des races mataises séectionnées, et si possibe des races pures. séection de ces animaux. Mots-cés: races mataises - programmes de séection génétique - marqueurs génétiques SHEEP AND GOATS BREEDS INVOLVED IN THE GENETIC SELECTION PROGRAMME. Matese goats. The Matese goat has a white body with ong hair, back head and arge dropping ears. This breed do not have horns. This breed came from the Midde East. It is ususay raised in sma focks of about heads. Kidding occurs during the whoe year, with a concentration during the months of November and February. Mik production is about 350L with a high fat (3.8%) and protein (3.3%) contents. Proificity is aso high (180%) (Rubino, R.; 1993). The variation of the goats with time in years is shown in Tabe. 97

3 Matese sheep. The Matese sheep has a white body and a back head, simiar to the Matese goat. The origin of the Matese breed is from the Awassi breed. It is usuay raised in sma focks of about heads. Mik production is about 320L with a high fat (4.5%) and protein (3.9%) contents:proificity is about 150% and ambing occurs during the whoe year, with a concentration during the month of November. The variation of the sheep with time in years isshown in Tabe. Tabe 1: Variation in the number of goats and sheep with time in years. Year 1989 ' Goats Sheep MANAGEMENT. Reproductive. The natura reproductive method is usuay used. In parae with this breeding seection program, another programme to introduce hormone synchronization and artificia insemination is being carried out. The fina aim is to introduce the technique of embryo transfer in the nearby future. Nutritiona. The feeding system is a combination of forage pants and usuay concentrates in the form of peets. Grazing sometimes takes pace but is not practiced by a the farmers. The common foreige pants used are: (i) Hedisarium conorarium; (i) Vicia sativa; and (iii) Medicargo rigidua. The concentrate peets are usuay made up of Barey, maise, cotton sieve cakes, mineras and vitamins. The peets contain 15.5% Proteins, 11.5mJ Energy and 3.5% Fibre. The goats are usuay given 0.8 kg during the eary pregnancy, 1.0 kg or more during the miking phase and ate actation and 2.0kg per 5 iters of mik. The maes are not given maise due to probems with the urinitary systems but are given crushed barey. The feeding for the sheep is very simiar to that of the goats. Housing. An open yard system is common used in Mata. Miking. Od farmers prefer the mechanica miking but most of the farmers nowadays prefer the sma portabe miking machine. Miking. parors are not commony used as the number of goats in a fock is sma. 98

4 GENETIC SELECTION PROGRAMME - GOATS. Aim: To re-introduce the Matese breeds in Mata and thus seect for the Matese oca endemic breeds. Methods: As Mata is a sma isand this method is hoped to be a successfu but I do not think that such a method woud be feasibe for a arge country. The method we began to use invove the buying from oca farmers of those breeds of animas that resembe the Matese goat. The animas are pace in the Government farm, this is the stage we are working upon. The animas are seected from their phenotype characteristics, that is the coour (white body with back head), ong ears and ack of horns. Animas are aso to be imported from nearby countries where this breed is found, this is due to the ow number of Matese goats in our country. Aworkinvovingmoecuarbioogyisbeingcarriedoutinorder to hepinthe seection programme. The principe of this method is to find a genetic marker which coud be a mrna or cdna or even a particuar sequence of the DNA. This sequence is abeed usuay with a phosphorus isotope and now this probe can to used to seect the animas of this breed of interest. The main techniques to be used in this project are the PCR, VNTR and RFLP methods. The same techniques and seection programme is to be carried out in the future on the Matese sheep. The first part of this program that is the coection and importation of the animas is aimed to take about 4 years, and by that time, it is hoped to have the a method avaiabe for the seection of the animas. i INFRASTRUCTURE. For this project the Government Farm for Research and Deveopment is being used.. This farm coud house approximatey one thousand animas. The moecuar bioogy research part is being carried out in the University of Mata in the Laboratory of Biomedica Sciences. Most of the recording and seection of the animas is being carried out by the staff working the in the Government Farm. DISCUSSION. This genetic seection programme ony started the ast year, so this program ti now is not we stabiized and is difficut to discuss the costbenefit anaysis. The Matese Government is ti now the main financia support but is not enough and such a research using biotechnoogy for the seection of.animas shoud be a internationa programme.

5 REFERENCES. 1. Rubino, R.; Goat Breeds in Itay in Anima Genetic resources information No. 11. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Food and Agricuture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 1 O0