Taleshi sheep

Taleshi sheep

Taleshi is one of the most important sheep breeds in Iran, numbering some 400,000 animals in the north of the country (ASRI, 2004), and distributed in the northern and western parts of Guilan province in the mountains between Assalem, Khalkhal, Oshkourat, and Deilaman. This breed can also be found in some areas of Guilan-Zanjan boarder. Mean adult live weight in this breed is 35(kg) for male and 31(kg) for female. The coat colour for this breed is yellowish-white to pure white, but brown patches are found on the head, face and at the bottom of the legs (DAGRIS, 2006). This breed is important mainly due to its small size, high meat quality (palatability) and ability to live in mountainous areas with rainfed foothills and foothill steppes with 1300 mm rain (Kioumarsi et al., 2008).

References:

ASRI, 2004. Iran's Country Report on Farm Animal Genetic Resources. Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture, Agricultural Research and Education Organization, Animal Science Research Institute of Iran, 131pp.

DAGRIS, 2006. Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System, Interna- tional Livestock Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.http://dagris.ilri.cgiar.org.

Kioumarsi, H., K. Jafari Khorshidi, M. Zahedi far, A. R. Seidavi, S. Z. Mirhosseini and M. R. Taherzadeh. 2008. The effect of dietary energy and protein level on performance, efficiency and carcass characteristics of Taleshi lambs. Asian J. Anim. Vet. Adv. 3: 307-313.