Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXII, Issue 1
Written by Ion BUZU
The purpose of this research was to elucidate the particularities of the correlative links of the length of the pilous fibers of the Moldavian Karakul lambs with their other morpho-productive characters. The length of the pilous fiber at Karakul lambs was defined as the absolute distance between the surface of the skin and the peak of the stretched fiber. This length was determined by the practical method during the evaluation under farm conditions, according to the Instructions of Karakul Sheep Evaluation. The method provides the determining the relative length of the fibers (the average length of a fiber tuft, mainly consist of thick and less of intermediate fibers) to the live lamb. The method of measurement consists in applying perpendicularily to the skin a millimeter ruler, with the sharp end in the seam of the curls, and with the tweezers the fiber tuft is stretched on the ruler graduation, fixing the indices at the peak of the fibers with the precision of 1mm. The scientific researches have demonstrated that the length of the pilous fibers in lambs of Moldavian Karakul is an important morpho-productive character, which has a significant impact on furskins quality. The optimal length of pilous fibers at lambs of superior elite class is within 7-12 mm. At lambs with valuable curling types (jacket, coastal, flat), the length of the fibers is shorter (9,80-11,53 mm), which is beneficial to the quality of the furskin. The costal and flat type of furskins have the shortest fibers (9.80-10.52 mm) compared to the jacket and kaukasian type (11.53-14.46 mm). Positive correlations between fiber length and mass and body length have been identified, and negative correlations with their length and modeling, which disadvantage the process of selecting of corpulent lambs - in the first case, and favor the process of selecting lambs with a valuable curling - in the second case. These correlations have been taken into account in the lambs selection. In the heterogeneous pairing of black and grayish parents, fellow descendants are obtained the grayish descendants with the shorter by 11.7% (P <0.1) of black fiber were obtained, thus with the more valuable furskin qualities, compared to the homogeneous pairing of both grayish partners. Pairing of sheep, with the jacket curling type, with rams, with coastal curling type, contributes to shortening of the length of the fibers at the descendents by 10.4% (P <0.1), thus improving the qualities of the furskin, compared to the mating of parents with jacket curling.
[Read full article] [Citation]
