The increased demand for meat in the Near East has opened up economic opportunities for indigenous production from small ruminants. Consequently, there is a search for suitable technologies that would result in increased production per animal in rural areas as well as in large or medium-size commercial flocks. This has stimulated research and an increasing amount of data is now being collected on specific problems at specific locations. Some of this information is being reported at national level and a large amount stays in departmental records.
The Technical Consultation of the Near East Regional Research and Development Network on Small Ruminants (Rome, 1986) has emphasized the need for a greater flow of national knowledge and experiences which should be shared by all the countries of the region. The Consultation has recommended that the available information in each participating country should be compiled in a meaningful form and published to give a wide circulation. The priority topics identified for the Network publications are: evaluation of the potential of indigenous genetic resources; evaluation of crossbreeding results; assessment of procedures to increase reproductive output; and research techniques.
The Network publications have so far covered the documentation of potentially valuable indigenous sheep and goat breeds in Cyprus, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey. A comprehensive compilation of information on Awassi sheep has appeared in No. 57 of this paper series. In the present paper, a detailed description is given of the performance of Moroccan sheep breeds and the Barbary sheep of Tunisia under the prevailing feeding and management conditions. In addition to describing the prevailing environment and feed supply, improvements that could be made in the system are indicated and relevant research results are presented. This provides a greater understanding of the resource base, its current performance and its potential under improved feeding and management.
Crossbreeding to improve fecundity and growth rate has been tried in the region to improve the genetic potential for intensive production. A number of temperate breeds and sub-tropical breeds such as D'Man and Chios have been used. The results.of crossbreeding trials with temperate prolific breeds such as Finn and Romanov are encouraging. However, these need to be looked at carefully before embarking on programmes involving smallholder flocks. The relevant information in this regard is therefore documented in the third part of this paper.
At the request of FAO, Dr. Fouad Guessous and his colleagues Dr. Boujenane, Dr. Bourfia and Dr. Narjisse of the Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, have contributed the part on Moroccan sheep and Dr. Gley Khaldi of the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique de Tunisie has contributed the part on Barbary sheep. The data on crossbreeding with Finn sheep has been compiled by Dr. Adel Aboul-Naga of the Animal Production Research Institute, Cairo. We are grateful for their valuable efforts and hope that the information provided would be useful to the livestock specialists and the producers in the Near East Region.
Abdul
Wahab Qureshi
Near
East Regional Animal Production & Health Officer
FAO, Rome
Near East Regional
Cooperative Network
on Small Ruminants Research and Development
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
English, 1981 : Arabic 1982
English, 1983 : Arabic 1986
English, 1984 : Arabic 1985
English, 1987
English, 1987 : Arabic 1988
English, 1985
English, 1986
English, 1987
English, 1988
