Latest estimates (FAO, 1985) of the livestock population of Sudan indicate that there are 19.6 million cattle, 20.0 million sheep, 13.0 million goats and 2.5 million camels in the country.
An estimated 1.47 million cattle are slaughtered annually with an average dressed carcass weight of 165 kg, yielding 243 000 tones of meat. The number of dairy cows in the national herd is estimated at 2.02 million, each with a lactation yield of 500 kg, providing 1.01 million tones of milk. The average total energy intake of the human population is 2332 Kcal/person per day, of which only about 12% (300 Kcal) comes from livestock products. Protein availability is estimated at 65.6 g/person per day, of which about 28.5% (18.8 g) is provided by livestock products.
Livestock are thus a more important source of protein in Sudan than in most Third World countries. Increased animal production would, however, not only improve the diet of the Sudanese people but also could create a surplus for export. Conscious of these facts, the Government of Sudan, soon after independence, created a number of livestock research stations in various parts of the country to study and improve the productivity of native breeds.
Livestock stations related to the principal breeds of cattle in northern Sudan were set up at Um Banein in Blue Nile Province (Kenana), at Atbara in Northern Province (Butane) and at Ghazala Gawazat in South Darfur (Western Baqqara). Stations to study the productivity of the Sudan Desert sheep and its sub-breeds have also been set up, notably at El Huda in the Gezira.
Former attitudes towards the supposedly low inherent productivity of indigenous breeds of African livestock have given-way to a realization that, in most cases, such breeds have been selected for extremely adverse environments in which survival was the main adaptive trait. They are thus well adapted to the conditions in which they are raised and under improved management, nutritional and health regimes should be able better to realize their true productive potential.
Attempts to introduce exotic "improver" and/or "improved" blood have led in some cases to the extinction or near-extinction of many local types of domestic livestock. This has led to widespread concern for the conservation of such strains, a concern that is motivated by the fear that the genetic resources of indigenous breeds, and particularly the complex of traits adapted to climatic and environmental stress, may be lost. Recently, FAO has attempted to establish a catalogue of indigenous breeds of intrinsic value, the improvement and conservation of which could lead to increased livestock output in specific situations. The Kenana and Butana breeds of Sudan are considered to possess such attributes.
None of the major breeds of Sudanese cattle appears in imminent danger of disappearance and there has, so far, been little dilution of the main gene pool through out-crossing to exotic (i.e. in this case non indigenous) breeds. However, the pace of development at present is such that in the medium term there is considerable risk that Sudanese native breeds will be subject to dilution. Before this happens, their major productive traits should be characterized.
Since the establishment of the livestock research stations in the late 1950s, considerable amounts of valuable data have been collected on Sudanese native breeds. These data have been subject to varying levels of analysis, usually piecemeal and often related to the particular interests of individual research workers. The analyses reported here appear to be the first attempt to characterize the Kenana breed based on all the data collected between 1957 and 1984. We have not attempted to re-analyze data for which analyses have been carried out previously on particular aspects of productivity, but in the interests of providing as full a characterization of the Kenana breed as possible we have drawn freely on these and incorporated them in this report. We have as far as possible acknowledged these sources in the text. It has not always been possible, however, to establish particular responsibility for particular pieces of work and we have, therefore, included a bibliography on the Kenana breed, incorporating all internal documents of Um Banein station as well as all published work. We hope that our predecessors will consider this an appropriate form of acknowledgment and of recognition of the value of their work.
