Improving meat and milk production of fat-tail sheep of the Middle East through breeding
Final Report Abstract
Sheep production in the Middle East has originally been based on the Local Awassi breed, a fat-tailed sheep with relatively low reproductive and productive performance but good adaptation to the dry and hot environment and low availability of feed in the region. Increasing population density, increasing scarcity of resources of land and water and changing local and global market conditions have increased the pressure for intensification of sheep production in the region. The present project addressed this problem by conducting research about the suitability of different Awassi lines for different production systems with focus on the Bedouin sector, where research has been conducted on sheep production and on socio-economic conditions. Awassi lines with different performance profile have been compared under conditions of Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan, incorporating principal investigators and young scientists from Germany, Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan. Breeding of high performance Awassi lines has been successfully advanced in the course of this project and the suitability of the high prolific Afec-Awassi line could be proven for improved semi-intensive production conditions of progressive Bedouin sheep farmers. Their profitability of sheep production, even under conditions of drought, could be improved considerably by adopting new breeding technology with 0.6 more lambs born alive per ewe mated through introduction of the Afec-Awassi line. Under semiintensive production conditions of an experimental station in Jordan, the Improved Awassi showed the best results, under semi-extensive farming systems in the Palestinian Territories Assaf and Improved Awassi were best suited, even at a relatively low level of performance with litters with more than 2 lambs lacking a chance for survival. Profitability of sheep production with market orientation was highly dependent on feed prices. Extensive sheep keeping by Bedouin tribes in the arid zones of Israel and Jordan gave negative economic results under all breeding options and sheep are kept for other than economic reasons with no increased inputs compensated by higher outputs. Basic research on the side effects of introducing the Boorola gene into the Awassi has been advanced in Israel. Molecular genetic tools for the diagnosis of day blindness have been developed and the undesired mutation could be eliminated in the Israeli and Jordanian breeding flocks. Management and veterinary treatment tools for counteracting increased lamb mortality in litters with more than 3 lambs have been developed and are successfully adopted under intensive management. With semi-extensive management, however, a higher frequency of litters with more than 3 lambs is not desired, so that Afec-Awassi are preferential over Assaf-Awassi. Abundant performance data on Local Awassi could be accumulated, filling a gap in the description of this local animal genetic resource. However, no stakeholder could be identified willing to engage in a breeding program for Local Awassi and stakeholder analysis revealed the organisational non-feasibility. Thus the planning and organisation of community based breeding programs with Bedouin sheep keepers seems not promising. The Bedouin tribes studied mainly in the Negev of Israel do successfully adopt individually suitable breeding innovations. Since they have open access to different options from the breeding animal market, they buy and test these by trial and error, but they are reluctant from forming breeding or marketing cooperatives. Several training programs could be realised ranging from short technical trainings across the Middle East countries to postgraduate trainings and Master Course participation of Jordanians in Hohenheim. One German and one Israeli doctoral candidate accomplished their thesis within the project. Scientific links between the partners from all countries involved could be built up which certainly contribute to confidence building in the struggle for peaceful relations between the countries. The overall increasing political tensions in the region, however, have been a strongly limiting factor for jointly generating and publishing scientific results, and by far counteracted the positive aspects of crosscountry cooperation in research and technology development. The successful adoption of the highly prolific Afec-Awassi line under Bedouin sheep farming conditions is a breakthrough in technology development offering a viable option to counteract land scarcity in the process of sedentarization of Bedouin tribes. The political and economic framework is, however, decisive, whether technology adoption will take place on a broader regional scale.
Publications
- 2008. Prolificacy and lamb survival at birth in Awassi and Assaf sheep carrying the FecB (Booroola) mutation. Animal Reproduction Science 108, 402-411
Gootwine, E., Reicher, S. and Rozov, A.
- 2008. Screening for polymorphism at the prion protein (PrP) locus (PRNP) in Awassi and Assaf populations in Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. Small Ruminant Research 77, 80-83
Gootwine, E., Abdulkhaliq, A., Jawasreh K. and Valle Zárate, A.
- 2009. Treatment of Pregnancy Toxaemia in sheep with Flunixin Meglumine. Veterinary Records 165: 265-266
Zamir, S., Rozov, A. and Gootwine, E.
- 2010. A mutation in gene CNGA3 is associated with day blindness in sheep. Genomics 95, 101-104
Reicher, S., Seroussi, E. and Gootwine, E.
- 2010. Novel day blindness in sheep: Epidemiological, behavioral, electrophysiological and histopathological studies. The Veterinary Journal 185, 130-137
Shamir, H. M., Ofri, R., Bor, A., Brener, O., Reicher, S., Obolensky, A., Averbukh, E., Banin, E. and Gootwine, E.
- 2011. Biochemical and in vitro biological significance of natural sequence variation in the ovine leptin gene. General and Comparative Endocrinology 173, 63–71
Reicher, S., Gertler, A., Seroussi, E., Shpilman, M. and Gootwine, E.
- 2011. Mini review: Breeding Awassi and Assaf sheep for diverse management conditions. Tropical Animal Health and Production 43, 1289-1296
Gootwine, E.
