Improving lamb meat and milk production for fat-tail sheep of the Middle East through breeding

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Anne Valle Zárate
• Subject Area: Animal Breeding, Animal Nutrition, Animal Husbandry
• Term: from 2001 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5296940

Economic progress, urbanisation and increasing market demands for meat and milk products from sheep are expected to lead to a growing intensification of sheep production in countries of the Middle East. In this context there is a strong need for genetic improvement of the wide-spread fat-tail Awassi sheep. Advanced breeding technologies have been developed in Israel through genetic selection and crossbreeding based on Awassi from which various elements can be implemented into sheep production of surrounding countries. This project tries to evaluate various alternatives of genetic improvement with the aim of developing a self-contained breeding programme for dual-purpose fat-tail sheep in the territory of the Palestinian authority. The programme combines experiments in experimental farms and in local farms with simulation studies on production systems and breeding schemes. Under intensive and semi-intensive conditions, the difference in the additive genetic merit between local Awassi and an improved Awassi strain as well as the effects of crossing them will be evaluated. For these two breeds and for the composite dual-purpose Assaf breed of Israel, the effect of the Callipyge gene mutation on carcass value and meat characteristics will be investigated. In a further experiment, the combined effects of the Callipyge and Booroola FecB (fecundity) gene mutations in fat-tail sheep will be studied. Based on results of the project about genetic and economic merit of d

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Israel, Palestine
• Participating Persons: Dr. Ahed Abdulkhaliq; Dr. Elisha Gootwine; Dr. Gerhart Nitter