TITLE:
Productive and Reproductive Performances of Indigenous Sheep in Ethiopia: A Review
AUTHORS:
Shashie Ayele, Mengistu Urge
KEYWORDS:
Carcass Production, Ethiopia, Growth Rate, Lambing Interval, Indigenous Sheep
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.9 No.1,
January
10,
2019
ABSTRACT: Sheep in Ethiopia is among the
major economically important livestock species in the country, playing a
significant role to the livelihood of resource-poor farmers
and pastoralists. A number of research works were done in the past which evaluate and improve the
performance of indigenous sheep in Ethiopia. However, compiled information
concerning the production and reproduction potential of indigenous sheep in the
country is not available. In this paper, performance of major production and
reproduction traits of indigenous sheep is reviewed and discussed. The
information presented in this review indicated that, 16 to 126 g/d average
daily gain, 7 - 18 kg hot carcass weight and
dressing percentage of 34% to 49%
(slaughter body weight basis) at 18 - 26 kg
slaughter body weight have been recorded for Ethiopian sheep breeds fed various type of basal and
supplement diets. These parameters showed variation within a breed and among
breeds in various feeding trials and they increased as the level of supplement
increases. However, despite sizeable information upon the response of sheep to
various types of supplementary feeding, their full growth and other production
potential of the majority of sheep breeds of the country are not well studied.
Therefore, in future research work, emphasis should be given to explore the
genetic potential of various production traits of sheep breeds of the country.
Regarding the level of reproduction, 11 to 16 month age at first lambing (for most sheep
breeds) and 7 to 10 month lambing intervals have been reported by various
authors. The litter size result (1.01 to 1.7 lambs) showed that, there is high
capability of Ethiopian sheep to give multiple births. The average pre-weaning
mortality rate for most Ethiopian sheep breeds vary from 8% to 56%, which indicated that mortality is a major
constraint that affects productivity of sheep in Ethiopia. Generally from the previous results it can be
concluded that there is high variability within a breed and among Ethiopian sheep
breeds in various production and reproduction traits. This implicates the
presence of huge opportunity to improve these traits through improved
management and selection.