Growth, reproductive performance and survival rate of Bonga sheep and their crossbreds in Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The dissemination of improved Bonga sires from Bonga sheep community-based breeding for the purpose of genetic improvement have been start in different parts of Ethiopia since 2012. Four districts from southern Ethiopia were selected for this study purposively. Monitoring and survey tools were used to evaluate the growth and reproductive performance and survival rate of Bonga crosses in the areas. Lambs obtained from Bonga sire show better and fast growth rate than lambs obtained from local sire. The obtained body weights for Bonga cross lambs at their birth, three and six-month heavier by 0.56, 1.92 and 4.4kg than local lambs under the same management practices of farmers. Based on survey result, 0.29 more lambs were obtained from ewes mated by Bonga ram than ewes mated by local ram. The findings indicated that, lambing interval were minimized by one month and age at first lambing of Bonga cross ewe earlier by 2.4 months than local ewe lambs. We observed that, the pre and post weaning mortality rate for Bonga cross lambs was significantly lower than local sheep in the present study areas. The fast growth rate of Bonga crosses over local sheep attracts farmers in the study areas to use Bonga rams as a breeding sire.