Abstract:
A fitted form of detailed structured questionnaire was used to
gather information from 200 Fulani sheep owners in Tullus village and its
surrounding villages in South Darfur State, to study some field
management practices adopted by shepherds and sheep owners and to
describe and characterize different Fulani sheep local subtypes in natural
habitat in South Darfur State.
Two hundred Fulani sheep with average age 3.8 years [38
Umgaba, 37 Alabiad, 25 Abrag, 17 Umkehail, 78 Umsaen and 5
Wadsarari, males (n=64) and females (n=136)] were randomly selected to
determine the body measurements using metric tape according to
phenotypic characterization of animal genetic resources recommended by
FAO (2012), the studied body measurements include: body length, height
at wither, heart girth, chest depth, rump length, rump width, head length,
head width, ear length, tail length and horn length. The obtained data
were summarized in form of descriptive tabular and graphs. Also analysis
of variance ANOVA followed by least significant difference (LSD),
Independent samples T. test. The results revealed that more than 68% of
sheep owners had above 15 years of experience in rearing their animals
reflected in their educational level where about 80% of them were either
illiterate or had basic or “Khalwa” education. It revealed also the
respondents reared mainly sheep beside other farm animals and the
Umsaen sheep subtype was the most raised sheep subtype. The results
showed that most Fulani subtypes were similar in many morphological
features, also it showed that there were local Sudanese names for
different Fulani sheep subtypes (Alabiad – Balami), (Umgaba – Uda) and
(Umkehail – Yankasa). The majority of sheep owners adopted semi
sedentary and open range system (98.5%) and fed their animals with
V
different kinds of agriculture by-products such as groundnut cake and
millet bran. The major priority selection criteria of ewes and rams were
size – feature while the main culling criteria were diseases and overage
for both ewes and rams. The result showed that the age at first lambing at
one year, three to four months was the most weaning age, furthermore,
Fulani sheep owners showed that the production age of ram was
equivalent the ewe, moreover, they showed that rams were most
preferable and higher price in group market followed by ewes, yearling
and Lamb. The most frequent diseases among adults and lamb of Fulani
Sheep were bacterial diseases and unspecific diarrhea for adults and
lambs respectively; also they showed that the main production handicaps
of Fulani were diseases, lack of feed, lack of water and predators.
Sheep sex had significantly affect (P<0.05) rump length, head
length, head width, and horn length (P<0.01). Also sheep subtypes of
Fulani had significant effect on height at wither, heart girth, ear length
and tail length. The study revealed that Fulani sheep had different colours
represented in various subtypes. Fulani sheep subtypes and sex had
affected some body measurements
