Documentation and morphology of Hazaragie sheep native to central Afghanistan

Abstract

Hazaragie, an important sheep breed in Afghanistan, is reared mainly for mutton. A survey was conducted in the breeding tract to study habitat, body biometry, management practices and reproductive and productive performance of Hazaragie sheep. Flocks (99) having on average 28.7 ± 1.5 heads/flock were studied. Out of these flocks, 44 animals were sampled randomly for morphological characteristics. About half of the flocks followed restricted breeding pattern i.e. they get just one lambing/year in the spring, however the remaining half of the flocks efficiently (84.8 ± 1.7%) lambed twice per year. The flocks graze for 11.0 ± 0.1 h daily during summer. Shearing is done twice in a year spring and fall with the average wool production of 0.5 ± 0.01 kg/clip animal. The diseases mostly affected young stock and approximately 28.3 ± 1.8% lambs died per flock on an average during the last year. The breed is small in size with an average body weight of 35.0 ± 1.2 kg, body length 45.8 ± 0.6 cm and body height 65.7 ± 0.6 cm. Most of the animals are black, however, variation to brown, red, white and admixture of these colors is also present. Both sexes are generally polled, having flat forehead and predominantly pendulous ears. The breed possesses broad fat tail, sometimes bilobed, having a short tail switch. Differences were observed in a few morphometric traits in different age and sex sheep categories.