Boutsko, Serres and Karagouniko

The growth and development of nine European sheep breeds. 2. Greek breeds: Boutsko, Serres and Karagouniko D. Zygoyiannis', I. Kyriazakis', C. Staniat'lris', N . C. Friggcns' a n d N. K ~ ~ t s a s u i i i s '

Abstract Tlri' c~bjr~tii!o, i ! f tlris .qtlrdy rilils to nssi'ss t11(~ x r ~ i ~ l t ~l iI I I L~lcrlo~lo/~rrio~rlt ~ of ~.nrnrssc.orripositicirr c?f rritiri. rrrnlc~iirril firiralr I(11iilis c i f t l r r o ~C r c ~ kdnir*y hrcc,ds iBoirtsko, Srrro~s i7rlli Klrri7goirriiko), frorir rl1cilriirrx to lii1c~ ri!c,i~ylrts iif1,Ll~oil7~/~ ~1~~ 1~~1~ ~7 ~ ill/lr'l7 l / / ' ~kc7f)f ~ ~ /~ l,l i 1 f c 7 f 'o ~ O l l ~ f ~ f1~~( ~i ~' ~1 ~i ~f0~ i!JL' l ~~' li ll l ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ li iO~l ii -f /l ~~?~i i, ~Lillil~l~ l /~ ~ l i ~ilJl'I'L7 ~. 7llo~li/il'lf nt 6 roc,r,k.i of i ~ x on11J ~ ~ i z ~ c '11r i11igIii / ~ r n l i tfx~llririifiood ~/ ad l i b i t ~ ~llritil n l sI111/~ thrrr Grc~o~k brrc,cis; as su~%rit is port of a11 oucrnll .sfl~li,~/ tlint mirrral to cliaracti~risc (for flir first tiirir nsfiir ns tlic nlitliors i1r.c. aii1arcl) riirrr slir~rpbrrrdsfrorii diilc,rsc, rc~giorzsoftlic~Elrropcmrr Uriiorr. Keywords: brrc~ds,cnrc-nss coirr~~ositiorr, foo~iiritirkc,,~ r o i ( 1 t hslircy~ ,

Introduction This is the second paper ill the series of studies investigating the growtli ancl development of sheep breeds from three diverse rcgions, usually designated as Less Favoured Areas (LFA), in the E ~ ~ r o p e a f l ~ ~the ~ i oLFAs n : of the United Kingdom (UK), C;cllicicl (north-west Spain) and mainland Greece. The over,lll aim of the study was to cliaractcrize the growth and meat production potential of key slic~ep breeds indigenous in the above three regions, whilst they were kept under conditions designed to be iiutritionally non-limiting, froin weaning to live weights approacl~ingmaturity; the light dnd temperature conditions c-hose11 were those prevailing in their local habitats. The geograpl~icalspread of locatioils and the di\rersity in the genetic selection for primary products of the breeds studied (meat, milk, progeny), offcred a

unique opportunity to use the resulting dat* to evC~luc~te scaling rules for growth and carcass development in sheep (McClelland 1.t ill., 1976). These comparisons form the basis of subsequent pdpers in this series. Here. we renort. for the first time. in absolute terms, the growth a11d carcass devt~lopment of thrce Greek breeds G~eece ,Ire all of d a ~ r y breecls, kept ~ r o ~ l ~ ~1cc t~~~niedt o ~i ~ i b15 usuallv reg'1rdcd as a by-product. Lambs are invariably slaughtered at weaning (30 to 50 days of dge), at carcass weight (which includcs normally the head and internal organs) which rarcly excccds 10 kg (Zygoyinnnis c? ill., 1990).A very sinall proportion of lambs are slaughtered at heavier weights (e.g. at around 100 days of age). Howrver, the ability to heavier carcasses with acceptable produce Sheep

111

L ~ ~ I ~ I I ~ for I ~ I inilk ~ V

428

Zygoyiaru~~is, Kyriazakis, Stamataris, Friggens and Katsaounis

composition \\.ould introclucc~greater flexibility to maturit!.. The expcri~nent'~ldesign ~isc~citour tlie indigenous sheep farming S\ stern\, \\rhich co~ild rcylic,ltei per scx/hreed/sI,i~~glitc~r point c~llow prod~ict-'~. to iiri~ro\.ctlie ~n~~rkc~t'~l~ilit! ot tlleilcornhin,~tion.Thc c.xperimc.nt 1ighecl crriginating froin northern (Macedonia) and cc\ntral on farm inlmcdiately prior to we,lniiig, ~vliichwas Greece (Tliessaly) respecti\,ely. The Routsko breed is initiated by relocatioii of tlic l'imbs to thc tyl.7ical of the small-sized mount'iin breeds, expcri~riental facilities of thc NARF about 25 km originating from north-west Greccc (Gpirus) from Tliess~~loniki,Greece (latit~ide 10' 41'N, ( K a t ~ ~ ~ o u i1980). i i s , WI~ilstaspects of the g r o ~ r t hof longitude 22" 51' E and altitude 30 nI ,~bo\,c> sea thc Serres ancl Kdragouniku breeds have been level). They were s~~bseclueiitly~reiglied wc,rkly t l i r o ~ ~ g l ~the o u tcxperiinent,il period. To facilitate the described under 1' \~arictyof conditions (e.g. Zervas c7t transition onto solicl food, lambs werc3 given the ill., 1977 and 1981; KCltsaounisc't ill., 1979; Matsoukas cJti l l . , 1987; Zygoyiannis c7t ill., 1990; Tz'llis c7t d . , 1991), experimental diet from 4 weeks of ~1ge'1s "reef' these studies do not providc a sufficient description food and were group housed for the first 3 days post i carcass composition over of the potential ~ r o w t l and weaning (this did not .~pply for the Boutsko larnbs n range of weights. We could find no published slaughtered at weaning; see below). D~iring this information 011 growth of Bo~~tskc> Icl~nbs. p - i o d they wcre vaccinated against different types of clostridial infection, treated wit11 an oral c10se of This paper presents detailed surninarics of growth anthelmintic and injccted with a multi-\~itainin , ~ n dcarcass colnposition data for the three breeds. solution. Subsecluel~tly they wcrr housed in The informCltionis presentee1 in a similar manner to incli\,idual pens, 1.00 X 1.50 m initially, cxpciinded ds that in tlie first paper in the serics where three British animals increased ill s i x to 2.00 X 1.50 m. above breeds wcre examined (Friggens ilf ill., 1997), since OF; kg live weight; the pen floor was concrete covered subsequent papers will present combined results with wood shc~vingsas bedding. 'lhe experirnei~t~~l from the application of inature n,eigllt scaling rules building was naturally ventilated and no ,irtificial to all i ~ i i breeds ~e used in this project. lighting was usecl. Minimum dnd maxim~ini,lnibicnt temperatures were recorded daily (Figure 1). A

l.?~Yiill I,llnL).; tlltx (+), Serrtss (l)c ~ ~ K,lr,~gouniko irl (A) brcvds. 'l'he error bdrh ~~~~~~k~ (+l, s ~( 1),lllcf ~ ~,lragoL,niko ~ . ~(A) ~ bl-c.c,ds,I ilt. sliot~,the ~\.erdges.e. o\.e~tlic whole period for eCichbreed. \,.llole pericld bol. er,Or bclrs slloM the ,lvel-age each hrcc~d

log,(composition (g/kg carcass)) wcight i n kg).

= (7

+ b.log,(c'ircass

All s t a t i ~ t i c ~analyses ~l were carried o u t sing Minitab 9 softrvarr and Minitah standard algorithms (Minitab Inc., State College, PA 16801, USA).

temperature stayed oxrel- 28°C (28.8 (s.d. 2.071, 29.4 ( d . 1.83) and 32.3 (s.d. 1.58)" (for June, J ~ t l y~113 August) ( F i g ~ ~lr)e) , the sheep n7ere closely shorn in M'ly. The wool w a s treated '1s described aho\,e and total d r y wool wreigl~trecol-ded. This w a s latcr added for the cc~lculc~tions o f livc weight, food con\,ersion efficiencics etc.

Results There Mrere no 111ajor hcdlth problems. In orcler to avoid any major heat stress on the lambs during thc suninicr, when the maximum axw-age ambicmt Table 2 Tlii, iioi7rii~cZ iiiii/!/ tooif

iiilir/ii> (,S

The growth ancl intake d ~ t aprescntcd here J r c for those lambs which ha\,e records tor ruore than 1 wceks, i.e. lambs ,~ssignedto slaugl1ter point 1 'Irc

fii,ilif i ~ i j i f;!c7r. di71/)i ~Koi~t~lco, f 5i~rr.i~~ iiiiii Ki~iir,yoiciitIrl-es

K,ilago~~iiiko

A\,erage 110.

Female

Mile

760 0.143

1025 0.149

Fem,~le

I OC)O C). 138

M'lle

1417

l-t~m,ilt~

l178

0.110

t 7hc .iver.ific>of the C\7s fol. r ~ ~ ctill~e l i period (exprcsscd '15 proportions). Tllere \v;ls n o effect of

0-167 It,\

Malt.

1521 0.l .70

(%I of intakt. 011 C\'.

Zygoyiannis, Kyriazaltis, Stamataris, Friggens and Katsaounis

-32 l Table 3

T l i ~ lii.c, ( c v i ~ i i iiii:;)

/ i i i i i l i i i ~fiiriii .

cif

l(oiii. Si~i.r~c7~ iiiiii Kiii.ir:;oiiiiii,i~ \iic7c,{~\"?~ic'~i iiuiic>r t ~ i i i i i i t i i ~ i riC7si;:iii,ii s

(c'c,i>X\i3 ic'lz,>Xsj105t icli'iriiiii::)

10 30

ROLItsko

I ')-C) 2.5.2 31 3 .:h.(>

4\.er'igc. l..>

64.9

increasing l i \ e weight

~ I CV. I

respec-tively. There was n o significant interactioi~ bctween breed and sex on a\,erage daily growth rate. For each genotype the relationship between cumulative live-weight gain and cumulative food intake. the slove of which is fcwd conversioi~ efficiency, is presented in Figure 6. Average food conversion effficiencies (FCE) over the wliole experiment were 0.201, 0.224 and 0.235 g gain per g food for Boutsko, Serrcs and Karagouniko sheep rcspectively. Average FCE (across breeds) for females and males were 0,199 and 0.240 g gain per g food respectively. There was no significant effect of breed, sex or their interciction on FCE (after covariate adjustment to account for differences between genotypes in the weight range covered). Estimates of mature weight derived from the liveweight data are presented for each genotype, in Tablc 3. For all three breeds, the ratios of male : fcmalc mature weights were not significantly different from 1.3. Consecluently mature weights adjusted to a malc : female ratio of 1.3 are also given in Table 3.

Boil!/ c-orirpositic~ir Thc average live weight, and the corresponding weights of the non-carcass composite aiid the carcass, at each slaughter point are prcsented by breed and sex in Table 5. The proportions of the wrcdss accounted for by dissected lean, dissected carcass fat and dissected b o i ~ c are presented ill Table 6. The proportion of the dressed empty body (defined as tlie carcass plus ~ I I C11011-carcass co~nposite)which was non-carcass fat is also presented in Tablc 6. As there was no systematic effect of genotype on the standard error of the mean, tlie average standard error of the mean, across genotypes, is prcsented for each

Growth and development of sheep breeds - 2

8

12

16

20 24 28 Age (cveek5)

32

130

36

Figure 4 Thc relationsh~pbetween live wcight (kg) and age (weeks) for female lambs of Houtsko (+), Serres ( l) and KC1ragouniko(A) breeds. The error bars show thc averdge s.e. over the whole period for each breed.

Figure 5 The relationship between live weight (kg) '1nd dgc' (weeks) for entire male lambs nt Boutsko (+), Serreb ( 1)m c l K'~r,lgouniko(A) breeds. The error hors sl10w the 'I\ e r ~ ~ g c s.e. over the whole period for each breed.

slaughter point in Tables 5 and 6. The standard errors of the mean did vary systematically with slaughter point. We d o not present here the results which relate to the chemical analyses of the carcass and noncarcass composite, since these will be reported in subsequent papers ill this series. With the exceptioii of slaughter point 1, the lean content of the carcass decreased and the fat content of the carcass increased with increasing carcass weight. As expected, the bone content of the carcass decreased with increasing carcass weight, for all slaughter points.

the interactioii between breed and sex (Table 7). There were no significant genotype effects on the regressions between killing-out proportion and live weight.

The relationsl~ip between dissected carcass composition and weight for each genotype derived by log,-log, regressions of the alloli~etricform are presented in Table 7. For these regressions, exclusion of slaughter point 1 significantly improved the fit of the relationship for all breeds and sexes (in terms of residual standard deviations and R'). 111 the regressions, there were highly significant effects of live weight on killing-out proportion and of carcass weight on carcass composition for a11 genotypes. Only tlie intercept of the regression between fat content of carcass and carcass weight was significantly affected by breed d i ~ dthe slope of the regression between bone content of carcass and carcass weight was significantly affected by sex. In all other cases the slope and the intercept terms of the regressions between carcass composition and carcass weight were not affected by breed, sex, or by

The extensive data concerning blood wcight, organ weights, joint weights, dissection within joi~~ts, and chemical analyses of the carcass and non-carc~~ss composite are presented in full in a technical report (Zygoyiarinis r,t d.,1995a) which also includes full growth and food intake data.

Discussion The aim of this paper was to provide, in ahsolutc terms, the first (as far as the authors arc aware) full description of the potential growtl~ allcl the associated carcass development of the Boutsko, Serres and Karagouniko breeds. We aimed to achieve this by providiiig conditions designed to bc nutritionally non-limiting, which were expccted to result in beiich mark levels of performance against which production strategies may be e ~ a l u ~ ~ tWe cd. first discuss whether this objective was achieved; subsequently we discuss the issues that arise horn it.

Groiclth irrlll potr~rrtinlg ~ . ~ i ~ ~ f l / As assessed in the Introduction there exist ,I number of studies that have looked at the growth and development of the Serres and Karagouniko sheep breeds. In the rncijority of these st~tdieslambs were

474

Zygoyiannis, Kyriazakis, Stamataris, Friggens and Ic~~tc.ci: ( 1 ) prc'-tl-ilil cdli~11~1tic)ri of l r l c l t ~ ~\ \rc~~>~ g lli?tr ~ ~ t(111 > i itlie bvcigllt of I>re~dilig ewe:, kept ~1nclt.t-sellii-extens~\t, coliditions; 12) in~it,pendca~~t c,stim,itc.; lor e,icll gcnot~pc. troln l i \ ~ t ~ - ~ \ ~ e idelta g l i t 11si11g ,I tl-,~nsforni~ltion of tlie C;ornpi,ri/ tunction, 'incl (3) ,idju\teci estimclli.\ h;ised on the estilnatiiin from li1.e-~\,ciglitdata ,l\surning a f ~ \ c ~ 1'1tio il L~c~t\v~~c~n m,ile ,lnd tc~~n,ilc> m,iturc. \\t~iglitsof 1 3. (Metliodolo:;ie.,iligi ,1rc3clcscribc,d i l l the, Material arid methods.) 1\11 1 < i l ~ ~< IeI -\~in > kg. $ I hc .;t~niiat-derror i \ ,ippro~in~.ltc'1s i t i' ~1eri\( ~ fro111 f t l ~ c\ t ; l ~ i d ~ (,I-ror rd of logr (rndt~~rtl \veigI~t).

grown up to li1.e wciglit of 30 kg, wit11 two ttxceptions (Matsoukas 1.t al., 1987; Zygoyiannis cJf ill., 1990) whcrc sheep wcrc sla~~ghtercd at ,ihout 40 kg. The live-m~eight range investigated in tlie ,~bo\,c stilclirs corresponds to the rmge of corn~lierci~ll intercst for Greece, wlicrc traditiolially smaller carcasses c ~ i r r yhigher premiunis (%ygoyic~nnis c.1 id., 1995~).A s such, these studies are entircly relevant to

local systems. Howe\rcr, they colrer only a small part o f the o\,crall growth curve. Therefore, thcy are not \,er!/ well s ~ ~ i t e to d characterizing the potcntidl growth and carcass development curves. From the previous studies, tlie higl~estg1-o~rt11 rates o f Scrres ciind Karagouniko male lambs were observed by Matsoukas L'! 01. (1987), who offered irii

Table 5 'liiiz iii~c~i.ii;nd includes the kidne!

\

omvntum, heart, lungs, Il\er,

,lnJ associated prrirtlnal f'lt.

G r o w t h a n d d e v e l o p ~ n e l of ~ t s h e e p breeds liliitiiiir acc~cssto 1' i.onceiitrdte food, \\~liich\\,I\ lot \,er! cliffcrent in cheiilic,~lcomposition froln tlie one we' t)ro\.idt~ii:12 M] ot MC pcxrkg DM ; u ~ ~ cIS0 l g l d Icd to ,l brttc9r rurnen function; thc food in the M , ~ t s o ~ t k ~1.fi s nl. (1987) \tud? w a s pro\ride~l in tlie form of g r o ~ ~ n cmecll. l In ,311 other pre\,ioi~sstudivs tlic. ohser\ r,d gro\vtli r'1tc. hardly e\,er cxcreded 220g/d'iy (e.g. Zt'r\.ds 1'1 ill., 1977; Pap,ldim i triou c7t ill., 1989; Z y g ~ y i ~ l n 1.f~ ~ill., i s 1990; Tz,llis czf ill., 1993). This Ie\,cll o f grom7tli, together with the ' ~ i ~ ~ ~ ii~l~~t o~ rbt ~l ~ ~on i t i the o ~ i foods otferrd, suggests that tlicir pre\.ailing nutritional conditions were limiting.

'l'lic~ 1,irgcst breed (K,ir'~gouniko, I',ihle~ I ) grc\\ significantl) tastcxr t11,ln tlie intc'rmcdi,lt~ bl.t>td, Serres, \ ~ l i i i hill turn gre\v \igiiiiicdllll> ht\ttt'r t h < ~ n thc srn,llle\t hreecl, l i o ~ ~ t s l \males o; grt.\v signific,~ntli t,lster than f~rn~i1i.i.This ohscr\,ccl rel,itionsliip het\vccn g t o \ v t l ~ rcite dnci m'lture sire' ~ 1 . ~ 1'1ss cxpected from t11cori.tic;il considc,r,itio~~sa h o i ~ t sc;iling to s i ~ c (e.g. , Ilionncy 1.1 ill., I987;1; E m n i , ~ ~ l s , 1988) ancl II~IS k e n p r ~ \ . i o ~ ~ ohsel.\,eci sIy ill \vidt~ r,111gt, OF s l i t ~ t ~breecls p (Mason, lc1h7; McClt.lland 1.1 ill., 1976). 111 contr'lst, Z ~ T \ , J Sof 111. (1977) clllcl Mdtsouk,ls 1.t ill. (1987) found n o significant diftt~rc~ncc~ in gro\rtli ratcs belween Scrres cllid I,lntor e,lch blri~~gliter point. $ Rod! is dcfintd as carcass weight plus tlie \vei~hto f the non-cat-casscomposite. Non-carc~sstrjt is defined as mesentrr! plus ornrntutn plus pc,rirennl 1'11 plus a n y tat in the tlioracii.

iiitliili~liiii//~/

Rcsidu,i l 131-eed-l

S4) (0.083) (0.099)

11

(\.v. 1 7 )

5.d

1.Hiitisii

Emmans, G. C., Dingwall, W. S., FitzSimons, 1. and Simm, G. 1987. l'he predicted ci~id,~ctu,~l r,ite.; of intakc ot ,i high clu.~lit\ food h!, S~iffolkrams from 20 to 70 kg li\.tx \\,t,igtit. Aiiiiiiiil 1'1-oiiiictioir 44: 476 (,lbstr.). Ferguson, N. S. and Gous, R. M. 1993'1. E\.,ilu,ition ot pig genotypt35 I . Thcoretic,il ,ispects of me~lsurrng genetic p.ir~~~ic,t('rs. Aiiiiiriil Proiiii~-tioir56: 233-211.

439

Meat and Livestock Commission. 198') Iii>triciti~iii\foi tlii, ~liilitll~u~/~lil/, /l!illtiii~ rl'tilil ciittiii,y iliiii t i 5 5 i i i ~ io~~iu~~tioii 11f Iiiirill I - ~ I c-iisic7s J Mt%;lt'inci Li\ c%\toiikC o~n~ni\bion, Milton Kc) n c ~ CIK. ,

ii>5i'iiiill'ii/,

I'apadimitriou, T., Panopoulou, C. and Rogdakis, E. 19HL1. [Gro~vtli ancl iciricompo.;it~on ot K,~r,igouniko, Fi-ic\l,incl X K,lr,~goilniko,C h ~ o as n d Fries1,inJ-C'li~t,sI,ln~h\ ~ l ~ i u g l i t e r e'it~ i70 kg 1ii.c \vcxight.l Aiiiiriiil Scic,iiic' Rizili[zii'9: 4'1-67. Taylor, St C. S., Murray, J. I. and Thonney, M. L. lC18c). Breed and sex Jitfc,i-cncc~s,~niongeqi~,llly~ n n t i ~ rsheep t, and goats. (1. Kreecl corrt,l,itions to]. body compu\ition ,ind food con\,ersion etticiency . Aiiiiiiiil I'i?)iilic~ti~lii 49: 123-431. Thonney, M. L., Taylor, St C. S. and McClelland, T. H. IClH7a.Breed ,lnd sex ditferencc.~in equ~llly~naturc.sheep ,incl g o ~ t s I. . (;ro\\,th ancl food intake. Aiiiiriiil Proiiiic./ioii 45: 239-260.

Ferguson, N. S. and Gous, R. M. IYe)3h.E \ ,lluation of pig genotypes. 2. 'I'esting experimental proceclurt>. Aiiiriiiil IJroiiiii-tioir56: 245-231

Thonney, M. L., Taylor, St C. S., Murray, J. I. and McClelland, T. H. I9X7b. Breed ,111d sex Jittcrl~nccs in eilu.111y m,iture sheep and goats. 2. Body components at 45: 261-276. slaughter. Aiiiirinl I'r~jifiic.tio~ii

Friggens, N. C., Shanks, M., Kyriazakis, I., Oldham, J. D. and McClelland, T. H. 1997. I'lie growth and Jt~vcloprncnt of nine E ~ ~ r o p e asheep n breeds. 1. British breeds: Scottish Bl,ickf,icc, Wclsh Mount'iiri