This paper is the report of a survey to seek out and identify the less common breeds of sheep in Mediterranean Europe and western Anatolia, to map their distribution, and to ascertain their populations and rates of change. The object was also to identify breeds in danger of extinction, and to determine the factors contributing to their decline.
Where published details were lacking or inadequate, it was proposed to record breed characteristics, performance data, and adaptive qualities. Unimproved sheep likely to throw light on the affinities and evolution of modern breeds were also sought, with particular reference to the spread of the fine-wooled type around the Mediterranean, and its emergence in Spain as the Merino breed.
The field investigation for the study, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (U.S.A.), was carried out from September 1974 to mid-August 1975. The work was done in cooperation with the Animal Production and Health Division, FAO, Rome. The FAO has a long-standing interest in animal genetic resources (MASON, 1974), and, in this regard, our study provides continuity to FAO and UNEP surveys of disappearing breeds of cattle in Europe and the Mediterranean basin (LAUVERGNE, 1975; COLLINS, 1975; MASON, 1977).
Methods. The scope of the survey was similar to that of MASON (1967), except that it was limited to Portugal and the countries on the northern rim of the Mediterranean: Spain, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. The eleven months of field work entailed 45 000 km of travel by motor vehicle in the study area.
Forty-nine breeds were investigated, and these are listed in the Table of Contents according to the wool characteristics, and in Table 1 by country.
Some of the common breeds and varieties in the countries visited were included in the survey for the purpose of comparison with the declining, rare, or relict breeds. Brief descriptions of these common breeds, with fleece measurements by MLR, are included in this report. A separate analysis of the fleece data will be made in a future paper.
Breed identifications were confirmed by local livestock agents of the Ministry of Agriculture or of the veterinary service who accompanied the authors on their inspections of the flocks. Shepherds, and frequently, owners, were present and provided details on the lineage of sheep in their flocks.
The data on performance and adaptation that are presented without references to published sources are derived from interviews with these officials, breeders, and other knowledgeable persons in the areas where the breeds are maintained.
Flocks visited were either the only ones available, or the only ones accessible. Animals chosen for measurement, photography, or fleece sampling were selected at random among sheep judged by the owner to be the most primitive or the most typical. The sources of such data as body weight and lambing rate are indicated with the breed descriptions in order to distinguish between records and opinions.
The details recorded in the field included methods of husbandry, height at withers, fecundity or “lambing rate” (the number of lambs born per 100 ewes mated expressed as a percentage), milk production, and fleece type, for which wool and skin samples were taken from most of the breeds. These were removed from the standard mid-side position, diameter measurements were made using the standard IWTO projection microscope methods, and the skin was sectioned and follicle counts made by the methods in Appendix I of RYDER AND STEPHENSON (1968).
Each breed was classified as to status on the basis of its current population and rate of change. The classification is similar to that currently used in the Red Data Book of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, modified to accommodate domesticated breeds rather than species of wildlife.
Status
Endangered. Extinction of the breed is either impending or imminent, with resultant loss of genetic variation. Immediate action is required if the breed is to survive.
Vulnerable. Breeding stock is decreasing at a rate that will bring the purebred population to a critically low level in the near future.
Rare. Breed with a small population, not at present endangered or vulnerable, but whose survival is at risk because it is geographically isolated, or sparsely distributed over a large area. Includes breeds that are relict, as well as breeds not recorded or with very limited documentation.
Not threatened at present.
Indeterminate. Breeds which may be threatened, but for which data are insufficient or contradictory.
