Indexes of primacy in sheep flocks of central Cordoba Province, Argentina

Abstract

The sheep population found in America in general and Argentine in particular, is the result of constant introductions of different breeds and animal types, especially of wool sheep. This has led to the existence of zones with sheep populations of great variability ("Creoles"), whereas, in other zones one sees a high degree of standardization (traditional breeds); there are intermediate situations also. This study was undertaken to measure the grade of primacy and the transformation that pertain to the sheep populations distributed in the central region of Cordoba Province. Information was gathered from ten flocks located in three different basins, two of these in the Sierras Centrales and the third in the south of the province. Biological and morphological data and a wool sample were obtained from 465 animals, from which primacy indexes of characteristics in segregation and an index of archaism scores were derived. The indexes calculated for flocks in the two basins of the central zone of the province enable concluding the existence of great variability in the traits studied, thus constituting primary type populations, in contrast to the indexes calculated for the basin in the south of the province, where the populations show a high level of homogenization or standardization. These results are in agreement with studies of sheep in Spain and France in confirming the process of transformation experienced by sheep populations of the region under study and that reported from numerous other regions of the American continent.