Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T05:13:20.673Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Crossbreeding of sheep under semi-arid conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

M. H. Fahmy ,
E. Salah E. Galal ,
Y. S. Ghanem  and
S. S. Khishin
M. H. Fahmy
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Research, Desert Institute, Matareya, Cairo, Egypt
E. Salah E. Galal
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Research, Desert Institute, Matareya, Cairo, Egypt
Y. S. Ghanem
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Research, Desert Institute, Matareya, Cairo, Egypt
S. S. Khishin
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Research, Desert Institute, Matareya, Cairo, Egypt
Get access

Summary

Data were obtained on 3028 lambs born during five successive years from 1961 to 1966 at Ras El-Hekma Desert Research Station in the Western Coastal Egyptian Desert. Breed groups involved in the study were Hungarian Merino, Syrian Awassi, native Barki sheep, and nine of their crosses. The characters studied were birth weight, weaning and yearling weights, pre- and post-weaning average daily gain and yearling greasy fleece weight. The effects of breed group, year of birth, sex, age of dam and type of birth on these characters were investigated.

The results obtained showed that Barki lambs excelled Merino lambs in all the traits related to body growth. Merino lambs, on the other hand, excelled Barkis in fleece weight. Barki lambs also excelled Awassi lambs in all traits except birth and weaning weights. In all characters except pre-weaning gain, the first cross of Merino and Barki (½M½B) was markedly superior to all the other crosses and pure breeds. The two third-crosses, ⅜ M ⅝ B and ⅝ M ⅜ B, were similar to each other in their productive traits and were slightly inferior to the first cross. The two back-crosses, ¼M¾B and ¾M¼B, were markedly different from each other, the former being better than the latter. The three-eighths Merino group is suggested for developing a new strain of sheep for the semi-arid regions. The effects of the environmental factors on the six characters studied were all highly significant except for the effect of sex on fleece weight and the effects of age of dam and type of birth on growth from weaning to yearling ages. The most important factor affecting the different traits was year of birth. Type of birth and age of dam were important sources of variation only for the characters studied till weaning age, but became of little importance thereafter. The effect of sex was pronounced only on yearling weight.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , August 1969 , pp. 351 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Blackwell, R. L. and Henderson, C. R. 1955. Variation in fleece weight, weaning weight and birth weight of sheep under farm conditions. J. Anim. Sci. 14: 831–843.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonsma, F. M. 1939. Factors influencing the growth and development of lambs with special references to cross breeding of Merino sheep for fat-lamb production in South Africa. Univ. Pretoria Publ. Series I (Agric.), No. 48, 214 pp.Google Scholar
Duncan, D. B. 1955. Multiple range and multiple F tests. Biometrics 11: 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
El-Tawil, E. A. 1965. Genetic and environmental factors of sheep under arid conditions. Ph.D. Thesis, Iowa State Univ., Ames.Google Scholar
Falconer, D. S. 1960. Introduction to Quantitative Genetics. Ronald Press Company, New York.Google Scholar
Ghanem, Y. S., Fahmy, M. H., Seoudy, A. M. and Farid, M. F. A. 1963. Some observations on the reproductive behaviour of local and imported breeds of sheep under desert conditions. Proc. 4th Egypt. Vet. Congr. Cairo, 1963 (in press).Google Scholar
Harrington, R. B., Whiteman, J. V. and Morrison, R. D. 1958. Estimates of some sources of variation in the body weights of crossbred lambs at different ages. J. Anim. Sci. 17: 743–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, W. R. 1960. Least-squares analysis of data with unequal subclass numbers. ARS- 20–8. United States Department of Agriculture. (Mimeograph.)Google Scholar
Kassab, S. A. and Karam, H. A. 1961. Effect of some environmental factors on body and fleece weights of Barki sheep. J. Anim. Prod. U.A.R. 1: 149–167.Google Scholar
Labban, F. and Radman, A. 1963. The effect of crossing Egyptian sheep with Merino on live weight of lambs. Proc. 2nd Anim. Prod. Conf. Cairo, pp. 47–60.Google Scholar
Sidwell, G. M., Everson, D. O. and Terrill, C. E. 1964. Lamb weights in some pure breeds and crosses. J. Anim. Sci. 23: 105–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar