Breed name: Sardinian breed

Species: Sheep 

Country: Italy

Aptitudes: Dairy

Risk Status: Not at Risk

History: The Sardinian is an autochthonous breed of Sardinia, developed over a long time for local environments and needs, and probably originating, like the majority of Mediterranean breeds, from the large Asian stock.

Description: The Sardinian is a medium sized animal (60-80 cm in withers height), with a live-weight ranging from 60 to 80 Kg for males and from 45 to 55 Kg for females. It has a light, polled head (sometimes vestigial horns are present in males) with a straight or slightly ram-like profile and medium-sized horizontal ears, an extended trunk, deep thorax, straight back and broad abdomen. Its udder is well-developed with a large cistern and teats of medium size (16 mm in diameter and 27 mm in length) implanted at quite a high level (60°-70°), globular with great sinuses, suitable for both hand and machine milking. It is a typical coarse-wooled breed showing a white (black spots appear sometimes) open fleece of mixed wool and hair with pointed staples stretching halfway down the foreleg and a little further up the hock.

Breed name: Barbarine

Species: Sheep 

Country: Tunisia

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: Not at Risk

History: The Barbarine is the most characteristic type of sheep in Tunisia, it is also called Nejdi or Arbi sheep and originates from the Asiatic steppes. It has been documented that its history in Tunisia was marked by 2 waves of introduction, firstly, by the Phoenicians about 400 B.C. and secondly, with the Arab invasion around 900 A.D.

Description: Barbarine is a medium-sized meat-type sheep characterised by creamy wool, coopered-red or black coloured faces and legs, wide and pendulous ears, a flat and slightly concave forehead and usually the absence of horns. The head and legs are bare and the wool varies from coarse and kempy to medium-fine and wavy. The Barbarine sheep are known for their hardiness and their ability to adapt to either warm or cold climates. Height of adult animals ranges from 60 to 80 cm in males and from 55 to 70 cm in females, and animals appear robust and vigorous. The main physical feature of the Barbarine animals is the presence of the fat tail, a bilobed sack of fat due to an accumulation of fat reserves on each side of the coccygeal vertebra. The fat tail presents large variations in shape and size due to genetic and other environmental factors (physiological stage, feeding level etc.) and could reach up to 15% of the total carcass weight in well-shaped adult animals. The fat tail represents a natural obstacle to free mating, and the shepherd assistance is needed to lift it at copulation time.

Breed name: Noire de Thibar

Species: Sheep 

Country: Tunisia

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: Not at Risk

History: Originally selected by the White Fathers in their domain of Thibar, in the north-west of Tunisia, the Black of Thibar originated from crosses between the Algerian Gharbi and the Black Merino of Arles. 

Breed of sheep from the northern coast of Tunisia, mixed, for meat and wool. This breed, officially recognized in 1945, lives in Tunisia and the Middle East. It was created in the domain of the White Fathers of St Joseph de Thibar, in the Medjerda basin, the former “granary of Rome”, 21 km from Beja, Tunisia from 1911. In the first generation, two types of crossings were implemented by Brother Novat: 

– black Merino ram from Arles (from the Crau) x Algerian fine-tailed ewes,

– pure Merino ram x black Algerian ewes.

Then the selection was made on the black color (9 years), then on the wool by consanguinity, and was accompanied by a rational feeding. In the 1970s, blood from the Brown-Black sheep breed of Switzerland was infused. The breed is in full expansion in the northwest and east of Tunisia.

Description: This breed of sheep has many advantages: meat less fat, its taste quality is proven, and the quality of its wool is unanimous. Its black color has been sought to combat the photosensitivity to which the local breeds of light color are subject, particularly as a result of consumption of St. John’s wort. This sheep, a medium-sized meat animal (adult weight 65.1 ± 8.7 kg), has a thin tail and coarse wool. The black coloring of the skin was sought to fight against the photosensitization (“Hamra”) that local light-colored breeds consuming St. John’s wort present. The head is elongated, with a full forehead, subconcave, without horns. The thin ears are horizontal or slightly erect. The trunk is almost cylindrical. The limbs are thin. The skin and the mucous membranes are pigmented. The fleece is black, leaving only the head, the throat, the inside of the tail and the perineum exposed.Its abilities are the production of wool first, then meat. Prolificity can reach 140%.

Breed name: Sicilo-Sarda

Species: Sheep 

Country: Tunisia

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: Not at Risk

History: The Sicilo-Sarda is the only Tunisian dairy sheep breed. Milk from this breed is used in a micro-sector of cheese production. Numbers of sheep from this breed fell significantly during the 1990s, due to unfavorable economic and political choices, as well as a lack of technical control of livestock, which risked the sustainability of this cheese production sector. However, initiatives to preserve this breed have taken place in recent years.  The Sicilo-Sarda breed shows low levels of milk production but this can be improved even in extensive systems. The Sicilian-Sardinian breed takes its name from a cross between two breeds from the South of Italy, considered among the best sheep breeds in the Mediterranean basin: the Comisana and the Sardinian, originating respectively from Sicily and Sardinia. At the beginning of the 20th century, Sicilian farmers arrived in Tunisia with animals of the Comisana and Sardinian breeds to satisfy their own needs in cheese. They settled in the hills of northern Tunisia, around the governorate of Beja and the delegation of Mateur in the governorate of Bizerte. This animal population has allowed to fix the sicilosarde race (Aurejac et al., 2007) which continues today to be encountered mainly in the north of the country. The subhumid climate characteristic of these regions is favorable to an important fodder production and a good development of the natural meadows. 

Description: In terms of general configuration, the Sicilian breed is characterized by an average height at the withers varying between 70 and 80 cm. The average weight of the adult is 45 kg for the female and 65 to 75 kg for the male. This breed has a very variable coat color, which can be white, black, or spotted. The shape of the fleece is heterogeneous and garish. The head is slightly elongated. The profile is straight with a slight curve, the tail is thin and long, and the limbs are thin. The horns are small and longer in males than in females. The ears are small and horizontal, and the muzzle is straight. The neck is long. The trunk is elongated, and the abdomen is ample. The mammary gland is well developed and has a strong attachment with straight teats.

Breed name: Queue fine de l’Ouest

Species: Sheep 

Country: Tunisia

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: Not at Risk

History: The Western Tail breed also known as “Bergui” is a mixed breed for milk and meat, and driven according to an extensive way of driving. It is a breed of Algerian origin and currently this breed occupies the western regions of Tunisia.  

Description: Among its characteristics, the long legs allow it to cover very large distances daily and to better exploit the courses of these areas. The dress is most often white, sometimes spotted with red, with a fleece that is less widespread than that of the Barbarine breed but more homogeneous and finer.

Breed name: Ouled Djellal

Species: Sheep 

Country: Algeria

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: Not at Risk

History: This breed was introduced by the Beni-Hilal who came to Algeria in the 11th century, from the Hijaz (Arabia) via Upper Egypt under the Fatimid khalifa. As known from Middle East and Asia should, all sheep “breeds” are all fat-tailed “breeds”, for this reason that, according to Trouette, the Ouled-Djellal breed with fine tail and fine wool was introduced by the Romans, great wool lovers, in the fifth century from Taranto in Italy where this type of sheep exists so far. it is also represented on the funerary steles of the ruins of Timgad (Batna).the term Arabic refers to the territory where the majority of Arabic-speaking breeders live; and not introduced by the Arabs “the Béni-Hillal”. The sheep population of the steppes was after the Roman occupation and before the Arab conquest. It is clearly related to the Zenetes invasions and the development of great nomadism, born of the appearance of the dromedary in North Africa. 

Description: Ouled Djellal breed has experienced an extension at the level of the tell, the steppe and the North of the Sahara. It also exists in Tunisia under the name of “Bergui or fine tail of the West”. It is a mixed breed conducted in an extensive mode. This breed is the best meat breed in Algeria. The color of the wool is white and the head is also white. Rams have spiral medium horns which are absent in ewes (except for a sub-breed, the Djellalia variety). Live weight of animals is from 80 to 140 kg, the male’s height is 96.32±8.95cm and 85.02±5.79cm in females.

Breed name: Rembi

Species: Sheep 

Country: Algeria

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: At Risk

History: The Rembi breed (called “Sagâa” in the Tiaret region). Historically, the Rembi occupied almost the entire steppe from the east to the west of the country and is better adapted to the steppe and mountain range compared to the Ouled-Djellal breed thanks to its great hardiness. This Rambi sheep is particularly suited to the regions of Ouarsenis and the Tiaret mountains. The Rembi sheep comes from a cross between the mouflon of Djbel Amour (also called “Laroui”) and the Ouled Djellal breed, because it has the conformation of the Ouled Djellal and the color of the Mouflon of which it also has the horns huge. This race is particularly hardy and productive; it is highly recommended to enhance poor mountain pastures.

Description: The Rembi sheep has practically the same morphological characteristics as the Ouled-Djellal breed, except that it has a slightly more curved dorsal line and the limbs and head are fawn or slightly greyish with medium, hanging ears. The wool is white and covers the whole body up to the knees and hocks. Rams have voluminous, spiraling horns and ewes may have backward-sloping horns.

Breed name: Hamra

Species: Sheep 

Country: Algeria

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: At Risk

History: The Hamra breed called “Deghma” is native to Algeria, it is called Beni-Ighil in Morocco (Moroccan High Atlas) where it is raised by the Beni-Ighil tribe from which it takes its name. But in Algeria this breed is known as “Deghma” because of its dark red color.

Description: The animals are of medium size. It resembles the Moroccan Béni-Iguil breed and it would have the same origin. The skin of the animals is brown, the mucous membranes black, the claws black and the tongue is blue. The wool is white, the spirals often streaked in black, of medium size in males, females are lumpy. The Hamra breed has an ideal conformation of meat sheep, and a remarkable fineness of the frame. She was preferred over all the others “breeds” on the French market under the name of Oranie sheep because of their organoleptic qualities. These qualities organoleptic are interesting.

Breed name: D’man

Species: Sheep 

Country: Algeria

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: At Risk

History: The D’men race (locally the word D’men means crossbreed). It is a Saharan breed from the oases of southwestern Algeria (Erg. Occidental and Oued Saoura Valley) and southern Morocco. These regions have very close historical ties between them, which largely explains the presence of the D’men race in the two localities.

Description: The D’men breed is characterized by exceptional reproductive aptitudes such as high prolificacy (200%), sexual precocity and fertility. the sheep D’men is able to reproduce throughout the year. The animal D’men is small in size and has a thin skeleton; with a fine, narrow head, hooked profile. The absence of horns is noted in both sexes, nevertheless the male lambs are born with outlines which fall off at the age of 3 months. A long and thin neck where the absence of pendants, the presence of a white spot on the forehead of animals with long white-tipped tail are the dominant characters in the D’men breed.

Breed name: Sidaou

Species: Sheep 

Country: Algeria

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: At Risk

History: This breed is also called Targuia because it is bred by the Tuaregs who live in the Sahara between Fezzan in Libya-Niger and southern Algeria in Hoggar-Tassili. It seems that the origin of the breed Targuia is the Sudan (the Sahel).

Description: The Sidaoun sheep looks like a goat except it has a long tail and a sheep’s bleat. Its body is black, light straw, white or has a mixture of two colors, with varieties in the distribution of spots. The horns in the male are either absent or are curved and small in size and the tail is slender, very long almost at ground level, and it has a white tip.

Breed name: Tazegzawt

Species: Sheep 

Country: Algeria

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: At Risk

History: The Blue breed is called Tazegzawt in Kabyle and called Ham in the region of Mechria (Nâama).

Description: It has bluish black pigmentation in the eyes, earlobes, muzzle and lower jaw. This breed is tall on legs with a slender body with white, semi-invasive wool. Rams have massive, spirally-wound horns. Pendants exist in most animals. The coloring of the head and legs of the Tazegzawt breed resembles that of the Martinik breed, which is a French breed with African origin.

Breed name: Prealpes du Sud

Species: Sheep 

Country: France

Aptitudes: Meat

Status: Not at Risk

History: Related to the breeds of the Pyrenees for some aspects, and to a breed of Syria for others, the origin of the Prealpes du Sud remains little known. The breed was finally named Prealpes du Sud in 1948. The cradle of the breed is located in the foothills of the Alps. The territory of these hills and the Mediterranean climate contributed to the unity of this population.

Description: The Prealpes du Sud sheep is an animal of medium size (55-70 kg for the ewes and 75-100 kg for the rams) with white skin and fleece. The head is fine, elongated and without horns, the muzzle a little convex and the forehead rather broad. The wool coverage is medium to low, stopping most often at mid-flank. The Prealpes du Sud have a good capacity to resist to heat, and to valorize coarse forage resources (pastures, scrubland). Its rusticity also allows it to behave very well in summer for the herds which transhume. This ewe has a good aptitude for deseasoning, characteristic sought for off-season production especially within the commercial framework of official signs of quality. It also has a good butchering potential and a good growth potential, allowing it to be most often used in pure breed for a production of lambs for slaughter. It is also used in crossbreeding with meat rams such as the Berrichon du Cher, which improves conformation and growth rates. The Prealpes du Sud is also a very flexible ewe which adapts very well to extensive management without any complementation, but also to more intensive management with three lambings in 2 years.