Autori: Ilişiu Elena, Dãrãban Stelian, Marilena Gabi Neacşu, Cãlin Vasile Ilişiu, Gerold Rahmann

Editorial: Landbauforschung - vTI Agriculture and Forestry Research, vol. 60 (4), p.259 - 265, 2010.

Rezumat:

The Tsigai breed comprises 18 % of the entire Romanian sheep populaton, taking second place after the Turcana breed (69.9 %). These breeds are kept in mountain and submontain regions with large areas of pastures (24 % of the total pastures of Romania are located in these areas), which could be used for grazing with crossbreed lambs. For this reason, we preferred to use the Tsigai breed as the local breed for crossbreeding with specialized breeds for meat production in this experiment. The F1-heterosis-effect is used for this production improvement.
The results of a 100-day fattening experiment with young male Suffolk x Tsigai sheep, German Blackface x Tsigai young sheep and Tsigai young sheep are presented in this paper. The resulting crossbreed lambs and Tsigai pure breed young sheep were maintained under the same conditions, received the same food, and benefited from the same microclimate factors during entire fattening period. At the end of fattening, the crossbreed groups recorded higher mean of total gain than the control group (23.83 ± 0.67 kg to Suffolk x Tsigai, 22.62 ± 0.49 kg to German Blackface x Tsigai vs. 20.11 ± 0.56 kg to Tsigai, respectively p < 0.001, p < 0.01). The lambs of crosses have a greater slaughter yield, with 2.50 percentage points to Suffolk x Tsigai (p < 0.001) and with 2.00 percentage points (p < 0.001) to German Blackface x Tsigai, comparatively to the Tsigai breed. The carcasses of crossbreed lambs (5 from each genotype) have more meat of first quality. Statistically significant differences were recorded regarding the gigot (6.65 ± 0.09 kg, p < 0.001 to Suffolk x Tsigai, 6.29 ± 0.22 kg, p < 0.01 to German Blackface x Tsigai vs. 5.16 ± 0.25 kg to Tsigai breed). Also, higher values (p < 0.01) were recorded to cross lambs regarding the cutlet (3.26 ± 0.06 kg to Suffolk x Tsigai, 3.08 ± 0.03 kg to German Blackface x Tsigai) compared to the mother breed (2.72 ± 0.09 kg).

Cuvinte cheie: Þigaie, ovine, carne, Suffolk, Germanã de Carne cu Capul Negru, încrucişare // Tsigai breed sheep, meat, Suffolk, German Blackface, crossbreeding