POLISH RED CATTLE - BREEDING, BREED PRESERVATION AND UTILIZATION

K. Zukowski 1/ and Z. Reklewski 2/

1. HISTORY OF THE BREED

The Polish Red breed (PR) belongs to the brachycephalic type of cattle that has existed in central Europe since prehistoric times and was reared by western and northern Slavs. Until the second half of the 19th century no organized breeding work aiming at improving the basic directions of local breed performance had been conducted. According to Jakóbiec (1959) the most important influence on the formation of this primitive local breed has been the specific mountain and submountain environment of southern Poland where in small farms the only feed available is hay in winter and poor pastures in summer.

In the 19th century many enlightened farmers were already aware that the local cattle varieties had such qualities as strength, resistance to diseases, good roughage utilization and adjustment to local rearing conditions (Rolnik i Hodowca, 1899). The native cattle were acknowledged as being the most suitable for small farms and where conditions did not allow intensive breeding. According to Pruski (1967) local cattle populations varied in colour - from black and brown to red and mouse-grey.

When discussing the history of the Polish Red breed Pruski (1967) reports that the local cattle were concentrated mainly in the area of sub-Carpathia, Swietokrzyskie mountains and Lomza. Because of poor industrial and transportation facilities the market for milk and milk products was very small. Thus, good milk performance was not the most important aim in breeding. Acccording to Pruski (1967) Swietokrzyskie cattle of one colour were known in the middle of the 19th century as being mainly good oxen.

In the second half of the 19th century an important role in improvement of dairy breed performance was played by large herds formed from cattle purchased from small farmers. Among the first herds were those formed by Jan Popiel in Wójeza and Adolf Rudzki in Branszczyk in 1869.

Sub-Carpathia was an important region as far as breed improvement was concerned. In 1894 the Red Cattle Breeders' Association was established under the auspices of the Agricultural Society in Cracow. At that time Stefan Romer from Jodlownik formed a Red cattle herd which is still existing. In 1906 official milk performance recording was introduced. First herd books of the Polish Red cattle were published in 1913. At the beginning of the 20th century other important herds were formed by Kuberski in Subierczyn, Frackiewiez in Wieprzowe Jezioro, Czecz in Kozy, Slonecki in Jurowce, Bujwid in Wolica, and Mars in Limanowa.

After the Second World War the most important breeding herds of Polish Red cattle, apart from Jodlownik, were those in the Experimental Farm in Konskowola, the State Pedigree Breeding Stations in Koszecin, Elk and Tarnawatka, the Animal Science Experimental Farm in Grodziec and Rossocha, as well as indivdual farmers' herds: in the Wysokie Mazowieckie centre, the herds of F. Kulesza in Golasze-Puszcza, M. Wlostowski in Mystki-Rzym, J. Kulesza in Kalinowo-Czesnowo; in the Podhale centre, the herds of A. Serafin in Kobylec, L. Krzak in Golkowice, J. Zur in Chabówka W. Majchrowicz in Skawa; in the Cieszyn centre, the herd of J. Miech in Godziszów; in the Lubliniec centre, the herds of S. Piechaczek in Sucha near Strzelce Opolskie and Kolaczuch in Harbutowice. Many of the herds mentioned had already existed for about 40 years or more.

After the war many scientific centres carried out investigations on the improvement of Polish Red cattle; the following scientists should be mentioned: Professors Z. Zabielski, M. Czaja, T. Marchlewski, Szezekin-Krotow and H. Jasiorowski and Drs. S. Poczynjlo and K. Zukowski.

Milk productivity of Polish Red cattle was not high (Table 1) due to the lack of selection in the post-war period when the main task was to reproduce a sufficient number of animals. Since there was no marked progress in milk performance, in 1950 upgrading with Danish Red cattle was introduced by Prof. M. Czaja in the Animal Science Experimental Farm in Grodziec Slaski (Zukowski and Luchowiec, 1964).

Table 1 DAIRY PERFORMANCE OF POLISH RED COWS

A total of 1969 full lactation records were collected from 481 cows sired by 51 bulls (Table 2). Milk productivity was over 17 percent better in cows with 1/4 Danish blood, 19 percent in 1/2 Danish cows and 22 percent in cows with 5/8 and 3/4 Danish blood.

In 1959 the first Red Danish herds were established, mainly in the State Pedigree Breeding Stations, from a few thousand heifers imported form Denmark. At the same time crossing was introduced in mass breeding and in breeding herds. For this purpose, Red Danish and crossbred bulls were purchased for the insemination stations in all areas in Poland where Red cattle were bred, except the Cracow region where Danish bulls were not imported until 1964. The main effect of this crossing programme seems to be a steady increase in fat content in the milk of Polish Red cows observed over the last ten years (Table 1).

According to Szarek et al. (1981) the quantitative and qualitative needs of the Polish milk and beef market changed in the 1960s. In order to adjust Polish Red cattle to changing maintenance and utilization conditions resulting from better feeding, other attempts at upgrading were made. Red Danish and Jersey cattle were used as improving components (Jasiorowski and Poczynajlo, 1970). A change for the better in the dairy performance of crossbreds was evident (Table 2). This crossing model, however, was not adopted in practice because of. the poorer beef performance of the off­spring. Red-and White bulls were then used for crossing. They improved milk productivity by about 400 kg and even if they did not improve beef performance, which took place especially when body weight was lower than 450 kg (Nahlik, 1973), they did not make it worse (Szarek et al., 1981-Table 6).

Table 2 DAIRY PERFORMANCE OF PRIMIPARAS OUT OF PR COWS WITH DANISH
RED OR JERSEY BULL MATINGS

By the end of the 1970s crossing with Angler bulls began. First results were encouraging. F₁ cows in a first lactation produced 1000 kg more milk and 0.15 percent more fat than the daughters of Polish Red bulls (Staszczak, 1985). The Angler crossbreds were decisively of dairy type.

By the end of the 1960s the population of Polish Red cattle was about 2 million animals, i.e. about 18 percent of the whole cattle population in Poland. A tendency in the 1970s to intensify Polish agriculture resulted in the disappearance of Red cattle from the greater part of the area where they had existed up to that time. This was also a consequence of administrative directives. The herds of Red Danish cattle also ceased to exist at that time, some because of mass leukaemia, others as a result of new opportunities for export of young beef slaughter cattle not including, however, Red bulls which in the importers' opinion were not suitable enough for fattening. In northern and central Poland, Red cattle were replaced by Black-and White cattle, and in south-eastern Poland by Red-and-White cattle.

2. PRESENT SITUATION

A concentration of Polish Red cattle still remains in sub-Carpathia within the boundaries of the Nowy Sacz province. This population, together with animals disseminated in the adjacent Bielsko, Tarnów and Cracow provinces, is estimated to comprise 100 000 cows. Another 100 000 Red cattle are found in enclaves in Bialystok, Kielce and Rzeszów provinces. These two populations together form about 3 percent of the whole Polish population of cattle.

Breeding work was continued only in the Nowy Sacz province and in the surrounding area. Since 1975 this work has been conducted in line with an officially accepted breeding programme. Milk recording is applied to under 1 500 cows. The main centre around which this work is concentrated is the State Animal Breeding Station in Jodlownik where breeding bulls are performance tested in rearing stations. Milk progeny testing is carried out at the station. Seven young Red bulls purchased every year by Animal Insemination stations in Brzesko and Zabierzów are tested in this way About 50 percent of cows in the Nowy Sacz province are inseminated. An interest in this native breed and willingness to breed it may be testified by the fact that since 1982 when the official regionalization of cattle breeds was cancelled, the regions mentioned peviously have bought from the Nowy Sacz region considerable amounts of semen of proven Red bulls.

Environmental conditions in sub-Carpathia have improved in recent years. Feeding of cows is better and production has increased. Breeders anticipate better animal material capable of higher productivity. Tables 3, 4 and 5 show characteristics of milk and beef performance of Polish Red bulls tested in recent years. The aim of future work will be to breed animals of higher productivity and fat content in milk which determines the price. With present needs in view, upgrading with the Angler breed is carried out. In the Nowy Sacz province a moderate crossbreeding programme with 50 percent bulls which constitute a half of all the bulls used for insemina­tion is practised. In the remaining regions of Red cattle breeding use is made of the semen of proven Angler bulls received by the Cattle Breeders' Association in Nowy Sacz from the Angler Cattle Breeders' Association in 1983 and 1985.

Table 3 PRODUCTIVITY OF RP PRIMIPARAS IN STATIONARY MILK PROGENY TESTING OF BULLS IN POHZ JODLOWNIK IN YEARS 1980-1984 (Nahlik K., Bienkowski M. and Zukowski K., 1986, in press)

Table 4 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF PR HEIFERS IN THE PROGENY BULL EVALUATION STATION IN POHZ JODLOWNIK FROM 1980-1984

Table 5 BEEF PERFORMANCE TEST RESULTS OF YOUNG BULLS IN THE
JODLOWNIK REARING STATION
(Szelag and Nahlik, 1980-84)

The aim of breeding work is to achieve an average milk production of 3500 kg with 4.5 percent fat content and 3.6 percent protein content as well as to improve lactation length to about 300 days. The body weight of Red cows should be 450-500 kg and height at withers 125 cm.

It is expected that this programme for the improvement of Red cattle will lead to the formation of a population with at least a 25 percent share of the Angler genotype. At the moment it is difficult to predict to what degree the genotype of native cattle will change.

Stalinski (1985), when discussing the future of Polish Red cattle as a breed in danger of extinction, supposes that if the breed improvement process is still based on a small, as at the moment, active population and concentrated (including the production of sires for the breed) around only one herd - Jodlownik - it will be necessary to look for "genetic qualities from the outside" and then only will it be possible to talk about Polish Red cattle as a gene reserve in preservation herds. The author is convinced of the necessity to preserve the breed.

At present two programmes are being carried out: breed improvement and preservation of the gene pool. In view of the need to preserve the old Polish Red breed type the following action was undertaken:

-	a reserve of semen from 39 Polish Red sires was formed (an average of 320 doses per sire);
-	embryos were frozen from the most valuable cows (long living, fertile and healthy). Sixty-nine embryos from 19 cow donors were collected (Wierzbowski et al., 1984). It is planned to collect 650 embryos from 50 cows which, according to Smith (1984), may provide a sufficient frozen genetic stock;
-	three preservation herds comprising 280 cows were established. The cows were purchased from all the regions where the breed was kept. The male to female ratio is planned to be 1:10 to 1:15. The herds will be divided into groups comprising 10-15 females.

The size of the preservation herd will be constant, thus only a very small percentage of offspring will be necessary for herd reproduction. In order to prevent a decrease in variability, offspring will not be selected. To counteract too much inbreeding only one son per sire will be left for rearing and, if possible, one daughter to replace her mother.

3. CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS OF THE POLISH RED BREED

Environment, and most of all feeding, have not led to high milk Production in Polish Red cows. Natural selection in this breed developed traits which make it possible to adapt to local conditions but which, unfortunately, usually lead to low milk production. A very slight improvement of performance traits through selection was accomplished and so the breed is not specialized and is characterized by a high genetic variability of productive traits. Average milk production of cows in small private farms is about 2500 kg with a general tendency for lactation to be restricted to 200-250 days. The cows whose milk performance was recorded in 1985 produced 30S5 kg milk, with 4.21 percent fat and 130 kg fat. in various dairy laboratory analyses it was found that protein content in milk in Red cows reaches 3.5 percent and dry matter content 12.7 percent. The milk, from these cows is highly regarded by the dairy industry due to the higher output and quality of casein coagulum which is necessary for cheese production. Table 8 presents a comparison of dairy industry data from adjacent regions where Polish Red and Red-and-White cattle are bred. To produce one unit of low-fat cottage cheese, less than 6.2 percent milk from Red cows is needed. For high-fat cottage cheese this difference reaches 5.5 percent. Dairy industry technologists feel that the milk from Red cows is the most suitable for the production of noble cheese types, especially emmentaler.

Beef performance traits are rather poorly developed in the Polish Red breed. Young cattle fattened extensively and semi-intensively give fairly good results, but because of the small size of an animal, fattening has to be finished early. Bulls should be slaughtered when their body weight reaches about 400 kg since further fattening is unprofitable because of the early development of a fatty carcass and low weight gains (Szarek et al., 1980). Fattened cattle utilize roughage feed well. Their carcass tissue composition and dressing percentage are good. They do not, however, belong -to the highest slaughter classes. Excellent material for fattening is obtained by mating Red cows to beef-type Charolais or Simmental bulls (Tables 6 and 7).

Table 6 BEEF PERFORMANCE OF PR BULLS X CHAROLAIS; PR X RED- AND-WHITE (RW), AND PR X SIMMENTALER CROSSBREDS
(Szarke et al., 1980)

The investigations of Cieslar and Wawrzynczak 1978) show that when compared with Red-and-White, Polish Red cattle are distinguished by good quality meat properties, i.e. better raw meat consistency, better texture after heat treatment, more tender, juicy and better organoleptic qualities. Meat of Polish Red bulls has the highest indices of so-called total quality.

Table 7 NORMS OF RAW MATERIAL EXPENDITURE IN CHEESE PRODUCTION

Source: 1986 Woj. Zw. Sp. Melecz., Nowy Sacz.

Table 8 COMPARISON OF SLAUGHTER VALUE OF FATTENED BULLS
(IN SLAUGHTER CLASS A)

The Polish Red breed has features typical of primitive populations which are well adjusted to local environmental conditions and management. This is expressed in longevity, resistance to diseases, good fertility and good calf-rearing performance. This may be illustrated by the fact that there were no problems in choosing 14-20 year-old cows which were still fertile to be donors of embryos for genetic reserves (Wierzbowski et al., 1984).

The results achieved in test bull rearing stations proved the good reproductive ability of this breed. Only 2 percent Red bulls are culled because of bad semen quality which could not be used for reproduction. In Black-and-white and Red-and-White bulls 9 percent of animals were culled for this reason (Szelag and Nahlik, 1980-1984).

The health of Polish Red cows is much better than that of Friesian cattle. Metabolic disorders, footrot and limb and hoof ailments are practically unknown in Red cows. Udder inflammation is also rarely found. The good health standard of the breed may also be testified by the fact that in a group of 400 cows, mostly old, purchased from several provinces to complete preservation herds, no cases of illnesses, including leukaemia, were officially recorded.

4. PROSPECTS TO UTILISE THE POLISH RED BREED

It is difficult to foresee at the moment which traits characteristic of the Polish native breed may be utilized in the future. Friesian cattle including Holsteins, although having undeniable production qualities are characterized by lower fertility and susceptibility to numerous diseases and thus their period of production is shorter. As a result even when milk productivity increases, the economics of cattle breeding become unattrac­tive due to the poor results from rearing young cattle. Polish Red cattle have these qualities which highly-productive breeds lack.

Sceptics claimed that it was no use building up genetic reserves since from the economic point of view crossing with low-productive local breeds would not be profitable. In recent years, however, the situation has changed. Due to the development of genetic engineering it becomes possible to use not only the whole genotype or genome, but also selected chronomsome fragments which carry particular genetic information. Theoretically, this would make it possible to introduce a qualitatively important trait without the risk of causing a decrease in the performance parameters which could take place in the case of a simple interbreed crossing.

The possible utilization of primitive breeds does exist. In Poland some pastures are not fully utilized because of unfavourable environmental conditions and it would appear that feed reserves both in the north and on mountain pastures could be successfully used by Red cattle.

At present it is difficult to predict the future nutritional diet for ruminants. At present more and more grain feeds are being used. In the years to come it might be advisable to offer cattle feeds which are not suitable for human consumption, i.e. forage, straw and by-products of agricultural production. Animals of the Polish Red type could prove very useful in a production system based on straw feeds complemented with concentrates.

If local breeds are distinguished by some specific production qualities characteristic of a given genotype, there should be no doubt as to the necessity of their preservation. There are some specific examples of local breed utilization for the improvement of production traits, as in the case of crossing Finnish sheep with Romanowska.

It is likely that quality, including taste of products of animal origin will become so valued with time that they will be given economic importance. Then the positive traits distinguishing the milk and beef of Polish Red animals will be appreciated, which could become the basis for wider breed utilization.

Genetic reserves in the preservation herds may also be treated as a control group in the estimation of genetic progress in the active popula­tion. Animals from preservation herds may be used in immunogenetic, physiological and nutritional investigations.

Those who are against the active protection of local breeds of domestic animals emphasize the costs of this undertaking. Also, there is no certainty that the protected breeds will ever be useful and therefore they doubt if these activities are justified from the economic point of view. These doubts are difficult to be refuted with valid arguments. However one may certainly talk about reasons of an aesthetic nature, willingness to preserve elements of material culture of previous genera­tions or, simply, saving from complete extinction. We live in times when the views on . future development models of civilization on our globe are changing. This change is caused by the shortage of energy and minerals. If it is desired to have the possibility of manoeuvrability in animal breeding, we cannot waste the genetic potential of local breeds.

REFERENCES

GENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE EUROPEAN BISON POPULATION

Wanda Olech 1/

In 1923, at Poland's suggestion, the International Society for the Protection of the European Bison was created. Its principal aim was to preserve the European bison by planned breeding and reproduction. Stocktaking in 1924 showed that only 54 individuals existed (29 males and 25 females) with a reliable pedigree. The European bison pedigree book was initiated for this species and it is still in operation. For each animal the book contains its sex, number, name, dates of birth and death, numbers of parents and breeding place.

The species was derived from a foundation herd of only 17 animals. Some pairs of ancestors were represented by only one descendant and that is why the gene pool of the species contains only 12 genotypes. It was impossible to prevent inbreeding in this population, and in consequence the inbred animal has a negative influence on viability, fertility and health. The aim of this paper is to show the situation in the population of European bison born before 1985 according to their inbred level.

The European bison is a wild species living in a mostly natural environment, but mating is under control. This is why very interesting material exists for studies on inbreeding and its effects.

For bison born before 1985 the following values were computed: inbreeding coefficient, length of life, and for females also age at first calving, average interval between calvings and number of offspring.

Mean value of inbreeding coefficient for 4509 animals is 0,202 ± 0.002; for 68 individuals it is greater than 0.500. Such a high value of inbreeding coefficient can seldom be found in stocks of farm animals. That fact could lead to the conclusion that the population of bison has degenerated. This is not true: bison are very well adapted to their living conditions, they are healthy and their reproduction level is satisfactory. It was noticed that only young animals were sensitve to a high inbred level. With the growth of inbred level the percentage of juvenile deaths increases. The chi-square test showed that this influence ; is highly significant. Table 1 presents percentage of juvenile deaths (in to the age of two years) in groups with a growing value of inbreeding coefficieni.

Correlation between inbred and some reproduction traits was estimated, and the results are presented in Table 2. Correlation coefficients are rather low, the only significant fact being that inbreeding increase: the average interval between calvings and the age at first calving and indirectly decreases the number of offspring. This influence is highly significant but still rather low. If parents have high inbreeding coefficients, the smaller number of their offspring takes part in further breeding (i.e. have offspring themselves). On the whole,, such a low influence of inbreeding on reproduction traits is surprising.

Table 1 PROPORTION OF JUVENILE DEATHS ACCORDING TO INBREEDING COEFFICIENT VALUE

Table 2 CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS BETWEEN INBREEDING COEFFICIENT AND SOME REPRODUCTION TRAITS

Percentage of genes of each of the 12 ancestors was estimated for all bisons born between 1980-1984 (876 individuals). The results obtained were almost the same as given by Slatis (1960) for animals living in December 1954 (Table 3). The proportion of ancestral genes has practically remained unchanged in 30 years. Unchanged genetic contribution proves that variability of the population was preserved, which is rather difficult to obtain in inbreeding.

Table 3 PROPORTION OF ANCESTOR GENES FOR BISON BORN BETWEEN 1980 AND 1984.

The reconstitution proved to be successful because the genetic variability has not been lost. The inbreeding depression has rather small effects on adults but results in lower viability of young animals. It is probably an indication of natural selection, the intensity of which is directly porportional to the inbreeding coefficient.

The reconstitution was successful due to several reasons:

-	great number of breeding places (thus subpopulations were formed);
-	loss of artificial selection - only natural selection which favours healthy and vital animals;
-	keeping animals in their natural environment, which avoids development of physical sensibility.

THE ROLE OF SHEEP AND GOAT GENE RESOURCES IN PRODUCTION, NATURAL ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION AND IN OTHER ACTIVITIES

L. Veress 1/

1. INTERNATIONAL TRENDS IN SHEEP AND GOAT BREEDING

There are two trends in modern sheep and goat breeding: to compete with other branches of agriculture, producers strive to increase products per animal and thus decrease production costs. Of necessity, sheep and goat breeding becomes intensive (Veress, 1984).

The rural population will leave areas unfavourable for agricultural production, arid and semi-arid steppes and mountain regions if sheep and goat breeding is not supported by the state and consequently these lands will become unused (Veress, 1984). The examples are some mountain pastures in Yugoslavia and Slovakia, where the number of sheep has greatly diminished. In UK, the Soviet Union and a number of other countries sheep and goat breeding is supported by the state in such regions to retain the population and protect the environment.

Ancient breeds have mostly survived in regions having unfavourable conditions where views on breeding and economy are more conservative. It is also in these regions where efforts are made to preserve them. Unfortunately breeding in farms of these regions is carried out with the help of their own gene reserves, which diminshes their chances of making a profit. This process in itself therefore does not guarantee the prevention of further decreases in the population and the immigration of genes. The creation of the "Rare Breeds Survival Trust" in UK is considered an important step on an international level. This Trust gives further support to preserve breeds that have a less than 20 percent ratio from outside the breed. It is firmly believed that the ancient breeds can only be preserved if state aid is accompanied by social unity together with financial support.

This conviction led us in 1982 to establish the Society of Hungarian Racka Breeders whose members are mostly private breeders. Breeding and further improvement of Racka sheep are carried out by the members partly through a sense of patriotic duty to preserve this noble and well-composed breed. Apart from the fact that this activity gives pleasure, it is also a useful hobby.

The leaders of the Society were elected by the members and they do their jobs unpaid. Since the Society was founded, interest in Racka breeding has increased, the stock has also multiplied and breeding animals have also been sold abroad. Meetings and consultations are held on workdays but out of working hours.

2. WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR PRESERVING ANCIENT BREEDS?

It is well-known that local breeds are well-adapted to local conditions, in many cases with an unfavourable climate, and that they utilize the less attractive vegetation better than culture breeds. For example, the main feed of the North Ronaldsay sheep are the mosses washed onto the sea-shore (Alderson, 1981). In fact, crosses with culture breeds will not improve, but in certain cases decrease, the productivity of the population (Hodges, 1984).

Several local breeds seem able to resist certain diseases (piroplasmosis, scrapie, etc. - Rendel, 1981).

Growth rates of several local breeds remain stable in poor feeding seasons, but these are fully recuperated on spring pastures. Other breeds such as fat-tailed and fat-rumped sheep endure thirst and hunger excellently, and use their fat deposits to satisfy their needs.

Especially at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, experts aimed at a thicker skeletal conformation of culture breeds. They supposed that the animals might grow stronger this way. The clumsy, usually diploe-skeleton resulted in difficult lambing. The unrefined breeds are usually characterized by finer skeletons and easy lambings.

All over Europe breeders nowadays are forced by the slaughter animal trade to produce animals that are not far from the phenotypes of the so-called terminal breeds. The outcome is that within the English Down breed type, mature weight differences between the early maturing Southdown and Dorset Down types and later maturing Oxfordshire Down and Suffolk breed types diminish, or more exactly body weights in both breeds become higher (e.g. American Suffolk). A similar case can also be seen with mutton Merinos, since their mature weight has increased by about 40 percent in 30 years. I consider it to be even more irrational that milk Friesians are selected for mutton in Western Germany (Luke and Müsch, 1983). The body weight of the Finnish breed known for its prolificacy increased to an even greater extent than that of the German mutton Merinos. It is an aim in Romanov stock sheep farms to increase body weights and wool production. At the same time the frequent lambings which are characteristic of this breed have in many stock farms been reduced to one lambing per year. In broiler production it was made clear a long time ago that it is possible to have the least expensive and at the same time a very good quality slaughter chicken by crossing a prolific mother line having a small body weight with a less prolific but heavy and well-muscled cock line. Increases in body weights in reared sheep and goat lines decrease the number of population per given (and at the same time non-increasable) land unit and so the number of lambs possible to include in this unit also becomes fewer. It is well known that the bulkier breeds demand for feed is greater. I would like to mention one Brittany breed as a rarity whose mature body weight does not exceed 10 kg (J.M. Elsen, 1985, personal communication).

Another, also poorly studied topic, is mutton quality. In Europe, mutton containing less total pigment is regarded to be of better quality because it is supposed to be less mature. Nevertheless, in UK the more finely muscled Herdwick breed having a smaller body, and in France the Massif du Central breed, also with a small body and mutton of a darker colour, give the tastiest mutton. At the permanent agricultural exhibition in the USSR lambs of the same age from 20 different breeds were slaughtered and given to the best known sheep breeders of the country to taste. The meat of finely muscled Romanov breed with high total pigment was most favoured (Kovnerev, 1978, personal communication).

In New Zealand, the question as to which breed tastes best was answered by the most authoritative Romney breeder, A. McGregor (1985, personal communication), who said it was the meat of the Merino because its mutton is less fatty, more finely fibred and pigmented. It is well known in Hungary that the mutton of the Racka breed is much tastier than that of Merino. The ancient sheep breeds having lighter body weights usually have tastier mutton than the mass-produced mutton breeds whose muscles contain more insoluble connective tissues.

In most culture breeds the aim is to select a white stock despite the well-known fact that it is the fleece of pigmented crossbreed types that gives the best hides (e.g. Romanov). A couple of years ago several scientific articles from Iceland claimed that the local pigmented breeds had a higher fecundity and a longer, more favourable heat season (Adelsteinsson 1970; Dyrmundsson 1978; Dyrmundsson and Adelsteinsson 1980). More recently Maijala (1981) also put forward a proposal to preserve the earlier colour variants in Finnish breeds. In a smaller sized Merino Landschaf selected for the highest possible litter size and lambings in every 7 or 8 months more and more frequently smaller or bigger pigment spots appeared on the heads and legs (M. Burgkart, 1981, personal communication). A similar case was observed in Booroola Merinos.

In the Kazahstan region of the USSR Butarin (quoted by Litovcsenko and Esaulova, 1977) has for the sake of better acclimatization crossed the Argali breed with Merinos. Mason (1981) gives an account of crosses with moufflons in Cyprus. The experiments made with crossing dedomesticated goats and angora goats in Tara Hill by the Invermay Agricultural Research Institute are also of great interest (J. Allison, 1985, personal communi­cation). However I must agree with the earlier standpoint of Cunningham (1980) and Bodó (1982) that the carefully studied local breeds seem more suitable to create new synthetic breeds.

So long as a breed consists of a small population inbreeding cannot be avoided (Bodó, 1982). The low variability seen in immunogenetical examinations of pure-bred animals also points to this fact (Fésüs, 1981). The black variant of the Hungarian Racka sheep was conserved for more than 30 years by one of our members who rarely bought rams from other stocks. Lambs from the inbreeding of the Romanov breed, which has a relatively small population, gave more favourable results in body weight increase and fecundity rate than the ones from top-cross matings. Only the lambs from very lose inbreedings (R = 0.25) had a significantly higher mortality rate (Arszeniev, 1982). This points to the fact that the probability of lethal and sublethal genes appearing is greater in breeds having a small population than in the highly populous ones.

3. MEASURES TO BE TAKEN IN THE FUTURE

Many excellent proposals to preserve breeds have been advanced by others (Bodó et al., 1980; Barker, 1980; Alderson, 1981; Maijala et al., 1984) and two of these only will be repeated: in breeds likely to be utilized in gene reserves, at least 500 ewes and 7 or 8 ram lines have to be conserved in every colour variant. So as to preserve a wider possible range of gene frequency in breeds it is advisable to deep-freeze semen from excellent rams and zygotes from outstanding ewes. St. Salamon (1985, personal communication) had a 60 percent fecundity rate through direct endoscopic insemination into the uterus with ram semen stored for 15 years.

As far as possible the intervals between generations have to be widened, i.e. animals with great life productions and a solid body frame have to be kept for breeding for possibley longer periods.

The fashion of crossing for its sake alone has to be abandoned. Local breeds must be entered in international flock books (Dohy 1984). Apart from state support national collaboration is also essential. National funds are needed to preserve, individually register and mate breeds. In addition the hobby of breeding ancient breeds has to be popularized in areas where herds can be put on common pastures in summer and can spend winter around houses surrounded by large sites.

The tastier mutton of local breeds has also to be popularized to increase its demand which would lead to higher purchase prices of animals for breeding and for slaughter.

REFERENCES

FUTURE PROSPECTS ON THE USE OF POLISH NATIVE SHEEP BREEDS

S. Zalewska, S. Jankowski 1/ and M.J. Radomska 2/

Several native breeds of sheep could be distinguished in Poland before World War II. The most important among them were the following:

Zackel	-	white and dark varieties - in the Carpathian mountains in the south of Poland
Fagas	-	along the Baltic Sea shore
Karnówka	-	central northern part of Poland
Krukówka	-	south eastern part of Poland
Swiniarka	-	central part of Poland
Wrzosówka

Most of these local breeds were described in the outstanding book of M.L. Ryder, "Sheep and Man" (1983).

These native breeds were either improved later by means of crossing with cultural European breeds or they completely disappeared. However the sole native breed which now exists was recently conserved as a gene resource, viz. the Wrzosowka or Polish Heath sheep. This is a very old native breed of small, grey fleeced sheep, once forming a numerous population which is very well adapted to the extensive system of feeding and management. It expanded over into the north-eastern territories of Poland within her former borders.

In the late 1920s, in the centre of this region, the Polish Government established an experimental station in Swiskocz (actually in Belorussian SSR) with the main task of studying the local native breeds of farm animals. The present authors are fortunate in being able to compare the actual data on performance of the Wrzosówka sheep with the report on this breed by Czaja (1937), who was director of the experimental station in Swislocz at the time.

The situation changed during World War II, but we still have within our borders a large strip of land formerly occupied by the Wrzosówka breed.

In the 1950s and 1960s the Wrzosówka population rapidly decreased in favour of more productive breeds of sheep. In 1970 it was nearly extinct, at which point the conservation programme started. At present (1986) we have about 1000 breeding ewes registered in the Wrzosówka flock book and several hundreds in commercial flocks of this breed. The breeding scheme adopted is based on a model elaborated in New Zealand: 1 nuclear flock and 10 affiliated flocks, introducing rams from the nucleus and sending some replacement ewes there.

The Wrzosówka fleece is a coarse one, consisting of numerous and rather long down fibres supported from inside by comparatively short, stiff, medullated hairs. The fleece as a whole is downy. the skins are thin, light and show a good tensile strength. A short tail is characte­ristic for Wrzosówka sheep. This trait together with the type of fleece and body conformation are important indicators of the mouflon origin of the breed, which is usually classified as belonging to the North European, short-tailed group of sheep. As such it is a close relative of the Romanov breed, but there are apparent differences: it is smaller, its body is more compact and its nutrient requirements are by far lower. A very important trait of the Wrzosówka breed is its good reproductive performance level (see Table 1). Its breeding season extends nearly all the year round First matings of ewe lambs can be successfully done at the age of 8 months. Average litter size in adult ewes ranges up to 1.75-1.82. Good results were obtained with Wrzosówka ewes in a frequent lambing system (see Table 2).

Wrzosówka sheep can be kept in pure-bred flocks, expecially in areas where extensive, poor grazing on light sandy soils is available. Its wool can be best utilized for hand-made folklore type carpets. Its skin is an excellent material for making coats, which are light and well insulated from the cold.

Table 1 PERFORMANCE LEVEL OF POLISH HEATH OR WRZOSOWKA SHEEP
In once per year lambing system
(according to Zelewska et al. 1985)

Table 2 PERFORMANCE LEVEL OF POLISH HEATH OR WROZOSOWKA SHEEP
In frequent lambing system
(according to Zalewska et al., 1985) Mixed age of ewes, all over 1 year old.

REFERENCES

^1/ Institute of Animal Production, 32-083 Balice k. Krakowa, Poland.

^2/ Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Jastrzebiec k. Warszawy, 05-551 Mroków, Poland.

^1/ Institute of Biological Basis of Animal Breeding, Warsaw Agricultural University, 05-840 Brwinów, ul, Przejazd 4,

^1/Institute of Animal Breeding and Nutrition, University of Agriculture, Debrecen, Hungary.

^1/ Animal Husbandry Experimental Station, Koluda Wielka, Poland.

^2/ Warsaw Agricultural University, Warsaw, Poland.