Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXV, Issue 1
Written by Vlăduț Dragoș BULMAGA, Ion RĂDUCUȚĂ, Costică CRISTIAN, Ion CĂLIN
Ewe reproductive rates are under 100 percent in most sheep breeding countries. The efficiency of the sheep industry together with the production of lambs needs to be improved. A great potential exists to increase sheep productivity and efficiency by increasing reproductive rate, largely through the exploitation of genetic variation among breeds. Profitability mainly depends on lamb production and various genetic and management methods exist to increase lamb output which depends on fecundity, prolificacy, lamb survival, and the number of lambings per lifetime. There are a few highly prolific sheep breeds available in the present and the challenge is to exploit this potential commercially. The aim of this paper is to review the Romanov prolific sheep breed and its use in different crossbreeding programs. The fastest way to improve prolificacy in local sheep breeds is by crossing them with rams from prolific breeds, like Romanov breed. Internally, within the I.C.D.C.O.C - Palas Constanta, the Prolific Line - Palas was created, following the crossing of Merinos de Palas sheep with rams from Romanov, Friesian, and Finnish Landrace breeds, which are characterized by an average prolificacy of 160-180%. The Romanov breed can be used in practice differently depending on the purpose pursued, namely use in purebred, use for the creation of new populations or lines with high prolificacy, use in simple industrial crosses to increase meat production (Romanov females x males meat), or use in double or triple industrial crosses (obtaining prolific hybrid females F1 in the year I - females of local breed x male of Romanov breed, which in the second year are crossed with males of specialized breeds of meat).
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