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The Thar Desert, Sindh, Pakistan is characterized by low productivity. Besides, economy is based on agriculture, livestock and mining, nevertheless, livestock graze freely on public and private land. The aim of this research was to determine biomass production and to evaluate the effects of continuous and seasonal grazing on protected and unprotected plots. A 45 ha protected rangeland area of Hurrabad in the Umerkot Thar desert was selected and divided into three blocks of 15 ha each. Blocks of the same size were also established in unprotected area. The data for vegetation biomass, canopy cover, forage nutrients and weight gain of animals in two seasons (spring and summer) was collected from both protected and unprotected sites. The results showed that biomass significantly increased in summer in both sites. However, the biomass values in protected sites were significantly higher. Similarly, the vegetation cover also seemed to increase in summer in both protected (90.7% ± 0.29%) and unprotected sites (39.2% ± 0.09%). The foliar concentrations of all nutrients varied significantly with season. The average final live-weight gain for does on the protected grazing sites during the 42-day period in spring and the 96 days after the monsoon was almost double that of does grazing on the unprotected site during 2016 and 2017 (P < 0.05). The study concludes that the protection of grazing lands during certain periods can lead to better production of vegetation and livestock and improve range conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scrub rangelands support livestock grazing and provide ecosystem services to their inhabitants. The present study was conducted in Chakwal, an important tract of the Pothwar Plateau, which sustains herds of small domestic and nomadic ruminants. Urbanization and uncontrolled grazing practices have reduced rangeland productivity and increased soil erosion and resulted in poor land conditions. This study assessed the influence of two years of rangeland protection on aboveground vegetation biomass and the chemical composition of plants and aimed to determine the influence of seasonal grazing on the live-weight gain of small ewes. Using the line intercept method, vegetation data from protected and unprotected plots in 2015 and 2016 were collected at two sites, Dhulli and Begal. Vegetation cover was assessed from images using VegMeasure. Results showed that protected study sites displayed higher vegetation biomass (834 and 690 kg ha-1) compared to the unprotected study site (477 and 326 kg ha-1) during April and August of both years. In the seasonal grazing trial, the experimental ewes that grazed on protected rangelands showed higher live-weight gain (33–63 g day-1) compared to live weight of ewes (17–21 g day-1) that grazed on unprotected rangelands during the experimental period of 127 days at both sites. The results suggest that the Chakwal rangeland has tremendous potential to improve vegetation productivity but modern livestock management and seasonal grazing practices are needed to improve carrying capacity and livestock productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigation was carried out to assess the effects of environmental factors and to estimate genetic parameters and trends for reproductive traits in Bonga sheep, Ethiopia. Animals used in this study were managed by two communities involved in a community-based breeding programs (CBBPs) from 2009 to 2018. The database consisted of 15,595 individual phenotypic information from about 1500 ewes with variable number of records for each trait. The traits analyzed were age at first lambing (AFL), lambing interval (LI), and litter size (LS). Fixed effect analysis was done using the general linear model procedures of SAS. The Average Information Restricted Maximum Likelihood method of WOMBAT, fitting univariate animalmodel, was used to estimate heritabilities, repeatabilities and breeding values. Results showed that Bonga sheep had overall mean AFL, LI, and LS of 453 ± 109 days, 254 ± 51 days, and 1.43 ± 0.008, respectively. All traits were influenced (p < 0.01) by lambing year, lambing season, breeder communities, and parity of ewes. Estimates of heritability for AFL, LI, and LS were 0.015 ± 0.143, 0.009 ± 0.070, and 0.085 ± 0.110, respectively. The low heritabilities for the traits are expected and indicate low possibility of achieving rapid genetic progress through phenotypic selection. The repeatability estimates for LI and LS were low (0.109 and 0.196, respectively) indicating that non-genetic factors had significant influence to the variation in these traits among parities; therefore, selection decision on ewes should consider repeated records. The genetic trend for AFL, LI, and LS over the years was significant (p < 0.01). Positive values for LS and negative for AFL and LI were recorded, implying that the well-structured CBBPs have resulted in measurable genetic gains for the reproductive traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the traditional Menz sheep breeding, communities select against black coat color and therefore its frequency is declining over time. We hypothesize that this exercise is causing the loss of an important gene pool. Data collected from on-station Menz sheep nucleus (n = 1992) and community-based breeding program (CBBP) (n = 5578) were analyzed to (1) assess color proportion dynamics over years and (2) associate phenotypic performances and estimated breeding values (EBVs) for growth traits with coat color of the animals. The on-station nucleus considered growth trait as selection criteria, while CBBP focused on a combination of growth and morphological characters. The results showed that the proportion of black coat color increased across years in the on-station nucleus flock (2.1% per year). However, in the CBBP, flocks' proportion of black coat color declined over time (1.03–1.05% per year). Birth and growth traits of black-colored sheep were consistently superior (P < 0.05) to white-colored sheep. Mean yearling weight and EBV of black rams used in the on-station flock was 24.3 kg and 3.7 kg, respectively, while the values for white-colored sheep were 19.7 kg and 1.6 kg, respectively. This variation in growth performances of Menz sheep among different colors may be due to the linkage between color and growth performance genes. Thus, selection against black coat color in the CBBPs seems to have an adverse effect on the genetic progress of growth traits in the Menz sheep. Understanding the core reasons behind the prevailing selection against black coat color and devising measures to address them should be considered. Developing a black line targeting specific markets might also be worthy to maximize production as well as maintain qualities associated with black color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maximizing the number of offspring born per female is a key functionality trait in commercial- and/or subsistence-oriented livestock enterprises. Although the number of offspring born is closely associated with female fertility and reproductive success, the genetic control of these traits remains poorly understood in sub-Saharan Africa livestock. Using selection signature analysis performed on Ovine HD BeadChip data from the prolific Bonga sheep in Ethiopia, 41 candidate regions under selection were identified. The analysis revealed one strong selection signature on a candidate region on chromosome X spanning BMP15, suggesting this to be the primary candidate prolificacy gene in the breed. The analysis also identified several candidate regions spanning genes not reported before in prolific sheep but underlying fertility and reproduction in other species. The genes associated with female reproduction traits included SPOCK1 (age at first oestrus), GPR173 (mediator of ovarian cyclicity), HB-EGF (signalling early pregnancy success) and SMARCAL1 and HMGN3a (regulate gene expression during embryogenesis). The genes involved in male reproduction were FOXJ1 (sperm function and successful fertilization) and NME5 (spermatogenesis). We also observed genes such as PKD2L2, MAGED1 and KDM3B, which have been associated with diverse fertility traits in both sexes of other species. The results confirm the complexity of the genetic mechanisms underlying reproduction while suggesting that prolificacy in the Bonga sheep, and possibly African indigenous sheep is partly under the control of BMP15 while other genes that enhance male and female fertility are essential for reproductive fitness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlled grazing is considered a good management strategy to maintain or increase the live weight of livestock and to reduce vegetation degradation of rangelands. The present study investigated soil characteristics, aboveground vegetation biomass dynamics and controlled grazinginduced changes in the live weight of local ewes in the semi-arid rangeland of Ahmadun, Ziarat, Balochistan province of Pakistan. An area of 115 ha was protected from livestock grazing in April 2014. In June 2015, soil characteristics within 0-30 cm depth i.e. soil organic matter (SOM), mineral nitrogen, pH and texture in controlled and uncontrolled grazing sites were assessed. Aboveground vegetation biomass measured in early (June) and late summer (August) in 2015 and 2016. The nutritional value i.e. crude protein, phosphorus (P), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and potassium (K) of dominant plant species were assessed at the beginning of experiment in 2015. Vegetation cover of controlled and uncontrolled grazing sites was also measured during the two years of the study period using the VegMeasure software. From June to November in 2015 and 2016, controlled and uncontrolled livestock grazing sites were grazed on a daily basis by local ewes with a stocking rate of 2 and 1 head ha-1 respectively. Results reveal that the organic matter contents of coarse-textured, slightly alkaline soil of the study site were in the range of 9.4 - 17.6 g kg-1 soil and showed a strong positive correlation with aboveground vegetation biomass. The biomass of plants was 56.5% and 33% greater at controlled than uncontrolled grazing site in 2015 and 2016 respectively and plant cover was also higher at controlled than uncontrolled grazing site in both years. The nutrient contents were significantly (P<0.05) lower in grasses than shrubs. In both years, the controlled grazing increased the weight gain of ewes about two folds compared to the uncontrolled grazing. The results indicate that controlled grazing improved the vegetation biomass production and small ruminant productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Impact of rangeland enclosure and seasonal grazing on protected and unprotected rangelands in Chakwal region, Pakistan", written by ISLAM Muhammad, RAZZAQ Abdul, ZUBAIR Muhammad, HASSAN Sawsan, AHMAD Sarfraz, GUL Shamim, RISCHKOWSKY Barbara and LOUHAICHI Mounir, was originally published electronically on the publisher's internet portal (currently SpringerLink) on 27 December 2021 without open access. With the author's decision to opt for open choice the copyright of the article changed in 02/2022 to © The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The original article has been corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted to determine feed intake, digestibility, and body weight (BW) change of Washera sheep fed on desho grass and natural pasture hay as a basal diet and supplemented with concentrate mixtures. Twenty-five intact male sheeps with body weight of 19.4 ± 1.89 kg (mean ± SD) were used in randomized complete block design. The dietary treatments were 100 % natural pasture hay (NPH) (T1), 75 % NPH + 25 % desho grass hay (DGH) (T2), 50 % NPH + 50 % DGH (T3), 25 % NPH + 75 % DGH (T4), and 100 % DGH (T5). Equal amount of concentrate mixture (CM) (300 g DM/day/h) was supplemented in all of the five treatments. The result of laboratory chemical analysis revealed that the CP content of the basal diets increased with increased proportion of desho grass hay inclusion in the treatments at the expense of natural pasture hay. Total DM, OM, CP, NDF, and ADF intake and digestibility was significant ( P < 0.05) and in the increasing order of T1 < T2 < T3 < T4 < T5. The average daily body weight gain (ADG) of experimental sheep was significantly ( P < 0.05) higher as proportion of desho grass increased from 0 to 100 % in the basal diet. The result indicated that desho grass can be used as a basal diet for local sheep with better performance than natural pasture hay-based diets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In northeastern Pará, extensive fallow-based agriculture systems are still common on smallholdings. Soil fertility is maintained by permitting the recuperation of the capoeira forest fallow. Much of the capoeira, however, has been eliminated, e.g. for permanent pastures but grass-monocultures usually ecologically degrade within a decade and lead often to barren pasturelands. To avoid these biologically degraded pastures, an innovative organic agro-forestry-system-model has been proposed, temporarily integrating pastures/cattle into the slash-and-burn cycle. The new approach assumes that cattle impact such as browsing and trampling would not alter the capoeira. This hypothesis was tested in researcher-managed on-farm experiments, by floristically comparing grass-capoeira pastures (GCP) against undisturbed capoeiras (UC) and traditional grass pastures (GP). Therefore, each pasture treatment was replicated three times on 0.36 ha pasture plots, respectively. Cattle were introduced at a stocking rate of 667 kg/ha, being reduced by one animal after 38 months to 410 kg/ha. Cattle impact was ascertained by comparing total capoeira phytodiversity, species similarity, life form structure, and vegetation cover. It was found that even intensive cattle impact on young capoeiras was neglectable and did not alter phytodiversity nor species composition. GCPs just showed a slight retardation in comparison to UC so that the botanical evidence of the ecological sustainability of a GCP could be proved. A PerMANOVA revealed that only 4.7 % (F = 5.513; R² = 0.047) of the differences between GCP and UC are attributed to the cattle impact/slashing regime. Our preliminary results suggest that the biodiverse system approach is worth pursuing as an alternative to degraded pastures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments were carried out in Syria with the purpose of investigating to which extent the effects of including 30 % olive cake (replacing parts of forage and concentrate) or tomato pomace (replacing concentrate) in the diet, described under controlled on-station conditions, can be recovered on farm. A total of 180 lactating Awassi ewes (three farms per experiment, 15 ewes per treatment) were fed either control diets or test feed diets over a period of 7 weeks. Milk yield was measured bi-weekly and milk composition was analysed for gross physicochemical composition and fatty acid (FA) profile. Both feeds reduced milk yield (−10 %) and milk protein content, whereas milk fat content was increased by tomato pomace. Both feeds resulted in similar changes in milk FA profile, namely less saturated and polyunsaturated FA and more monounsaturated FA including 18:1 trans FA. Tomato pomace and olive cake also resulted in increased n-6: n-3 FA ratios, while the proportion of the conjugated linoleic acids was not affected by either treatment. In conclusion, the response of the ewes on farm was clear and similar in nature for most of milk-related traits as that found on station, but lower in magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedigree recording and genetic selection in village flocks of smallholder farmers have been deemed infeasible by researchers and development workers. This is mainly due to the difficulty of sire identification under uncontrolled village breeding practices. A cooperative village sheep-breeding scheme was designed to achieve controlled breeding and implemented for Menz sheep of Ethiopia in 2009. In this paper, we evaluated the reliability of pedigree recording in village flocks by comparing genetic parameters estimated from data sets collected in the cooperative village and in a nucleus flock maintained under controlled breeding. Effectiveness of selection in the cooperative village was evaluated based on trends in breeding values over generations. Heritability estimates for 6-month weight recorded in the village and the nucleus flock were very similar. There was an increasing trend over generations in average estimated breeding values for 6-month weight in the village flocks. These results have a number of implications: the pedigree recorded in the village flocks was reliable; genetic parameters, which have so far been estimated based on nucleus data sets, can be estimated based on village recording; and appreciable genetic improvement could be achieved in village sheep selection programs under low-input smallholder farming systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six Ethiopian indigenous goat populations viz. Gumuz, Agew, Begia-Medir, Bati, Abergelle, and Central Abergelle were genotyped for 15 microsatellite markers recommended by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and International Society for Animal Genetics. A total of 158 individual goats were tested to assess genetic variations within and between the goat populations in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. The markers revealed 100% polymorphism across six goat populations indicating the presence of genetic diversity, which is an important variable to measure genetic variability within and between populations. The mean observed and expected heterozygosity values ranged from 0.56 (Central Abergelle) to 0.68 (Bati) and 0.59 (Abergelle) to 0.69 (Agew goat), respectively. The lowest genetic distance was observed between Begia-Medir and Central Abergelle (0.039), and the largest distances between Agew and Abergelle (0.140) and Gumuz and Abergelle (0.169). Neighbor-joining and the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean methods with bootstrap value of 1,000 was used which grouped the six goat populations into two major groups viz. the Abergelle goat cluster as one group and the Agew, Gumuz, Bati, Begia-Medir, and Central Abergelle goats as the second group. In our study, the obtained higher total variation within the goat populations (95%) confirms a close relatedness of the studied goat ecotypes, which might have happened due to the existence of uncontrolled animal breeding strategies resulting from uncontrolled movement of animals through various market routes and agricultural extension systems. The study contributed to the genetic characterization of Ethiopian indigenous goat populations and demonstrated the usefulness of the 15 microsatellite makers for biodiversity studies in goats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most Arab countries, domestic agricultural production is insufficient. The gap between production and demand is likely to increase due to climate change and other factors. This review paper examines the challenges and possible solutions to ensuring food security in the future. It focuses on rainfed agriculture, which accounts for two-thirds of the region's cropland, the bulk of its food staples, and almost all its rangelands. Given the scarcity of water and arable land, there are few opportunities in the region to expand cultivated area. But numerous effective, proven technologies are available that can increase productivity per unit area of land or volume of water. Crop technologies include, for example, new stress-tolerant varieties, supplemental irrigation and other techniques to increase water productivity, and conservation agriculture and other land management methods. Livestock nutrition and productivity could be increased with new forage or dual-purpose varieties, and greater use of alternative feed sources such as feed blocks made from crop by-products. The paper describes some of these technologies, and summarizes results obtained from on-station and on-farm testing. The key issue is poor adoption of available technologies. The priority for researchers and policy makers must therefore be to scale up investments in research and extension; encourage private sector participation; and create enabling policies to encourage technology adoption, market participation and more sustainable use of natural resources, by smallholder farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An understanding of factors influencing the decision of rural people to keep sheep and/or goats is crucial when formulating technologies and policies that support village-based small ruminant production. The knowledge of such factors will also improve assessment of impact intervention strategies on the livelihoods of rural people. Structured questionnaires administered in 228 households were used to study the ownership patterns of small ruminants in southern Benin. The ownership of goats was higher (91%) than sheep (35%) because goats are not affected by any ethnic or cultural restrictions. Goats are also perceived to be a less risky to invest into compared to sheep. Women represented 71% of the keepers of goats. Predictive models of ownership were developed using logistic regression. The results showed that younger household members ( p < 0.05) especially young women (60%) are more likely to own small ruminants. Owners of small ruminants are less likely to be involved in off-farm activities and would often have no access to credit facilities. Gender, ethnicity, and perception of risk associated with species are the major factors affecting people’s choice of species. These findings highlight the financing and insurance roles that small ruminants, particularly goats, are playing in the study area. In order to develop suitable technologies and formulate policies to improve productivity and enhance livelihoods, the constraints to goat production need to be identified, and the local knowledge of the keepers should be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Borana pastoralists in southern Ethiopia are faced with the challenge of developing more efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. In past decades poorly adapted development interventions and inadequate land-use policies aggravated by population growth have weakened pastoral rangeland management. Ignoring pastoralists’ technical and organizational capacities has contributed to progressive land degradation, the erosion of social structures and poverty. The Endogenous Livestock Development concept recognises pastoralists’ indigenous knowledge-based strategies and priorities, and uses them as the bases for further development of their production system and social relations, to be utilized, improved and combined with modern technologies. This paper explores the Borana pastoralists’ adaptive strategies for improved utilization of natural resources and the manner in which they respond to environmental risk and external influences such as water development and new formal administration. The adaptive responses include controlled integration of crop production and protection of grazing reserves, as well as changing cattle breeding priorities and the adoption of camel husbandry. The pastoralists have started negotiations with the administration to regain control of land utilization by strengthening directives for settlements, land use pattern and extraction rates. To support these initiatives the study recommends that pastoralists and other stakeholders enter into an institutionalized process of negotiation that builds on indigenous knowledge and organizational structures and facilitates validation and implementation of newly generated knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization in Africa leads to a spatial concentration of people with different cultural origins and socioeconomic backgrounds resulting in a great diversity of life styles and livelihood strategies. One common strategy in Maroua/Cameroon and Bobo-Dioulasso/Burkina Faso is urban sheep keeping. Cluster analyses identified distinct socioeconomic groups with similarities between the towns: traditional livestock keepers, households headed by well educated government employees or traders, and more vulnerable groups formed of households headed by females, retired people or people with limited formal education. The household types in Bobo varied in their perception of the importance and the development of urban sheep keeping and their future plans. Those in Maroua differed in management intensity and in the potential to adapt their practices to the urban environment. Development interventions to reduce environmental pollution and risks for human health associated with urban sheep keeping need to account for these differences in the target group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]