Prolific Garole Sheep: Pride of Bengal

Abstract

Abstract

Garole, a micro sheep breed of India, are distributed in the Sundarban area of 24-Parganas district of West Bengal and is famous for high prolificacy rate, resistance to foot rot disease, grazing in knee-deep water, good adaptability to hot humid conditions and high mothering instinct for their neonates. This meat type animal is of short stature with a light brown coarse texture coat and produces coarse wool, good quality skin and low-fat mutton. This breed is generally maintained by marginal farmers and landless labourers in its native tract. Flocks are stationary and average flock size ranges from five to seven. The animals are allowed to graze on rice fallow land and natural grass cover on the roadsides and water channels. The average live weight of adult animals ranged between 10 and 14 kg. The animal is having high fecundity rate, with mean litter size of 2.27. Twin and triplet births are very common in this breed. Owing to their high fecundity and ability to thrive on low quality forages and agro-byproducts, these animals constitute a major source of income for their owners. As the population of this sheep breed is declining sharply over the years in its home tract, so it needs more concerted efforts towards conservation as well as improvement of this breed in its home tract.

Keywords: Garole sheep, body weights, genetic parameters, conservation, India

Cite this Article

Ajoy Mandal, Prabir Kumar Karmakar, Behera R et al. Prolific Garole Sheep: Pride of Bengal. Research & Reviews: Journal of Dairy Science and Technology. 2017; 6(2): 11–19p.