Despite the large numbers and importance of adapted indigenous sheep and goats in the tropics, information on sustainable conventional breeding programmes for them is scarce and often unavailable. This paper reviews within-breed selection strategies for indigenous small ruminants in the tropics, highlighting aspects determining their success or failure. The aim is to better understand opportunities for genetic improvement of small ruminants by the resource-poor farmers in traditional smallholder and pastoral farming systems. Dismal performance of programmes involving breed substitution of exotics for indigenous breeds and crossbreeding with temperate breeds have stimulated a recent re-orientation of breeding programmes in tropical countries to utilize indigenous breeds, and most programmes are incipient. The success rate of some breeding programmes involving native breeds is encouraging. Definition of comprehensive breeding objectives incorporating the specific, immediate, and long-term social and economic circumstances of the target group as well as ecological constraints was found lacking in some projects that failed. To achieve success, it is necessary to look at the production system holistically, and involve the producer at every stage in the planning and operation of the breeding programme, integrating traditional behaviour and values.

Sabi and Dorper ewes were evaluated for resistance to gastro-intestinal nematode parasites (predominantly Haemonchus contortus) at the Matopos Research Station in Zimbabwe. Live weights (LWT), blood packed red cell volume (PCV) and faecal egg counts (FEC) were recorded at mating, 1 month before lambing and 1-3-month post-lambing for five separate lambings between 1996 and 2000. Dorper ewes were heavier (P<0.01) than Sabi ewes at all sampling times. Sabi ewes were more resistant to internal parasites than Dorper ewes as shown by their significantly lower FEC and significantly higher PCV at all sampling times except at 2-month post-lambing for FEC and at weaning (3-month post-lambing) for PCV. At all sampling times except at weaning individual ewes were treated with an anthelmintic when their FEC was greater than 1500eggs/g (epg) and/or their PCV was less than 20%. The proportion of Dorper ewes that was treated with anthelmintic was significantly higher than that of Sabi ewes at all sampling dates. This effect was particularly marked 1- and 2-month post-lambing. There was a post-parturient rise in FEC in the 2-month period after lambing for both breeds.

In vitro and in vivo evaluation of non-conventional feed resources was carried out in the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Debre Zeit Station, Ethiopia, using shee10 non-conventional feed types commonly used by urban and peri-urban livestock farmers were obtained from the farming system and evaluated in vitro following standard procedures. Following in vitro studies, five non-conventional feed types were selected for in vivo studies based on the in vitro result, availability, and wide use by farmers. 30 indigenous rams weighing 22.6 +- 0.97 (mean +- SD) kg initially were stratified into weight groups and assigned randomly to treatments. Treatments included Tela atella (traditional brewery residue), Katicala atella (traditional liquor residue), lentil (Lens culinaris) hull, rough pea (Lathyrus sativa) hull, and field peas (Pisum sativum) hull based on the basal diet of native grass hay (control). In vitro study indicated that Tela and K. atella had higher organic matter (97-98%), crude protein (CP) (21%), and gross energy (GE) (21-22 MJ/kg DM), and lower fibre fractions (neutral detergent fibre, NDF=41-60%; acid detergent fibre, ADF=11-21%). Pulse hulls (lentil, rough pea, and field pea hulls) had medium to high CP (8-16%), lower GE (17-19.5 MJ/kg DM), and higher fibre fractions (NDF=49-71%; ADF=49-62%). Among the pulse hulls considered, lentil hull had the highest CP (16%), and lowest NDF (49.4%) and ADF (48.6%). Poultry litter and orange peel had the highest CP (30%) and GE (28 MJ/kg DM), respectively. Results of the in vivo study indicated that both T. atella and K. atella and pulse hulls improved total dry matter, organic matter, nitrogen, energy, and NDF intakes. The improvement was higher for T. atella and K. atella compared to pulse hull groups. Basal diet intake was reduced when pulse hulls were fed. T. atella, K. atella, and lentil hull had higher nitrogen and energy digestibility compared to pulse hulls and the control. Supplementation improved nitrogen retention, with T. atella, K. atella, and lentil hull. Therefore, given the increasing competition with monogastric animals and increasing price of conventional byproducts coupled with the deteriorating quality of tropical forages, T. atella, K. atella, and lentil hull have potentials to be used as a protein and energy (except lentil hull) supplements on low quality based diet under small holder livestock production systems. Further research is warranted to lower the concentration of tannins and fibre in pulse hulls and improve the feeding system to enhance the utilization of T. atella and K. atella.

The effects of breed and dietary protein supplementation on the development of resistance and resilience to gastrointestinal nematode parasites (endoparasites) were examined in artificially infected Horro and Menz lambs from 4 to 12 months of age. The factorial design involved two breeds, two infection treatments (infected vs non-infected) and three dietary protein treatments (hay and wheat bran (basal diet), hay plus molasses urea block (MUB), hay plus cotton seed cake (CSC)). At the start of the study, 152 weaner lambs (103 Menz and 49 Horro) were assigned to the 12 treatment combinations each in a separate pen. Endoparasite challenge involved three infection periods (primary, secondary and tertiary) each separated by an anthelmintic treatment. The first two infections were with Haemonchus contortus, while the third infection was a mixed infection of H. contortus, Longistrongylus elongata and Trichostrongylus colubriformis. During the entire study, infected lambs gained significantly less weight and had a lower blood packed cell volume (PCV) than the non-infected lambs. Protein supplementation of lambs with CSC resulted in lower faecal egg counts (FEC) and higher PCV and growth rates than lambs fed the basal diet. In the first two infection periods there was no significant effect of infections in lambs supplemented with MUB, probably due to low intake of MUB. In the tertiary infection period MUB was fed ad libitum which resulted in MUB-supplemented lambs having significantly higher PCV than lambs on the basal diet, with CSC-supplemented lambs intermediate. During the primary infection, naive Horro lambs had a significantly lower FEC than Menz lambs, but there was no significant breed difference for PCV In the secondary infection period there was no significant breed difference for FEC or PCV in infected lambs. However, during the tertiary infection, while there was no significant breed difference for FEC, the Menz had a significantly higher PCV than Horro irrespective of infection status. At the end of the tertiary infection, the Menz lambs (n = 26) had significantly lower adult worm burdens for H. contortus and L. elongata than Horro lambs (n = 18), but there was no significant difference between the breeds for T. colubriformis worm burdens. Both the worm count and PCV data suggest that Menz lambs acquire the ability to resist and tolerate endoparasite infections better than the Horro lambs.

Assessment of adult female tick burden was performed on 160,151 and 150 yearling sheep in coastal Kenya at the end of three consecutive infestation periods, respectively. The main attachment sites of fully engorged female ticks were ears, head, body sides, perianal and scrotal/udder regions. Averaged over the three sampling periods, 87 percent of the ticks counted were on the ears. The correlation between tick count on the ears and total body tick count was high (0.97). The average repeatability for two recorders of tick counts on the ears and the whole body was similar and high (0.95 and 0.93, respectively). The results suggest the ear tick count is a good indicator of tick burden on sheep exposed to natural tick challenge consisting predominantly of Rhipicephalus appendicultatus and R. evertsi.

A digestibility study was conducted with West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep offered four varieties of soybean stovers (SBS) basal diets, TGx 1019-2EN (SBS1), TGx 1448-2E (SBS2), TGx 1660-19F (SBS3) and TGx 932-2E (SBS4) and a growth study with WAD sheep offered three varieties of soybean stovers SBS1, SBS2 and SBS3 incorporated into three diets such that the roughage source in the diet was a 50:50 mixture of stover and hay supplemented with 15 percent cassava crumb to investigate feed intake, digestibility and body weight change. In Experiment 1, similar (p>0.05) mean voluntary dry matter intake (VDMI) (37.32 (+ or -) 2.19 g kg-1 BW 0.75 day -1) observed for sheep fed SBS1, SBS2 and SBS3 was higher (p<0.05) than 31.59 (+ or -) 2.19 g kg -1 BW0.75 day -1 of SBS4. Crude protein intake pattern was identical to that of N-intake and the similar (p>0.05) DM mean N-intake (0.68 (+ or -) 0.04 g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1) of SBS1, SBS2 and SBS4 was higher (p<0.05) than 0.44 (+ or -) 0.04 g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1) of SBS3, although 0.47 (+ or -) 0.02 g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1 N-retained by sheep fed SBS2 was significantly (p<0.05) higher than N-retained values of other SBS. Crude protein digestibility (CPD) value (73.46 (+ or -) 3.08 percent) of sheep fed SBS2 was also higher (p<0.05) than the similar (p>0.05) mean (61.32 (+ or -) 3.08 percent) CPD value of sheep fed SBS1 and SBS3 while sheep fed SBS3 recorded the least (p<0.05) CPD value of 34.08 (+ or -) 3.08 percent. Also, neutral detergent fibre digestibility (NDFD) value (64.64 (+ or -) 5.90 percent) of sheep fed SBS2 was higher (p<0.05) than the similar (p>0.05) mean NDFD value (49.02 (+ or -) 5.90 percent) of sheep fed SBS1, SBS3 and SBS4. In Experiment 2, average VDMI of sheep fed diet I (54.58 (+ or -) 1.93 g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1) was higher (p<0.05) than the corresponding mean VDMI (48.41 (+ or -) 1.93 g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1) of sheep fed diets 2 and 3. Similar mean dry matter digestibility (DMD) value (68.25 (+ or -) 1.89 percent) of sheep fed diets 1 and 3 was higher (p<0.05) than DMD value (56.68 (+ or -) 1.89 percent of diet 2. N-retained as percentage of N-intake (g kg -1 BW 0.75 day -1) of sheep fed diet 1 (78.83 (+ or -) 2.58) was higher (p<0.05) than (64.49 (+ or -) 1.58) of diet 2 and (61.3 (+ or -) 2.58) of diet 3 was the lowest (p<0.05) mean value (30.50 (+ or -) 3.13) of diet 2 and 3. Also, sheep fed diet 1 recorded growth rate (g day -1) (18.68 (+ or -) 0.16) which was higher (p<0.05) than 15.38 (+ or -) 0.16 of sheep fed diet 3 and sheep fed diet 2 recorded the lowest (p<0.05) growth rate of 10.99.

Small ruminant genetic resources (SRGR) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) play an important role in the welfare of the people, especially the resource poor. SSA is endowed with a diverse SRGR maintained under equally diverse and complex production systems. The public and the private sectors are key actors involved in the conservation and management of SRGR in SSA but with the latter playing a dominant role. Currently the emphasis is on in-situ rather than ex-situ conservation and management. In order to make SRGR conservation attractive and sustainable, the strategy must be associated with some economic benefits. This could be achieved by commercialising SRGR by adding value to them, particularly the indigenous varieties. There is also a need to promote conservation awareness and build capacity among the stakeholders through research, extension and training. Policy changes and political as well as financial commitment are needed at both national and regional levels to implement these actions.

Thirty-two goat flocks belonging to 45 farmers and raised under village conditions in the Ganawuri area of the subhumid zone of Nigeria were monitored every 2 weeks for 30 months to determine productivity under village conditions. Records collected on kids included birth weight, birth type, body weight (BW), mortality and disposal information. In the wet season (August-October) goats were either tethered on natural pasture (NP) or were free-ranging on fodder banks (FB) of Stylosanthes spDuring the dry season, all animals were free-ranging on natural pasture (NP), forbs, crop residues or household wastes. Birth weight was affected (P<0.05) by year and season of birth, sex of kid and birth type. Both rate of gain and BW up to weaning (5 months) were affected (P<0.05) by year, parity and birth type. Animals on FB gained weight at a faster rate (33.8 vs. 28.9 g per day) between birth and 12 months of age and were consistently heavier than their counterparts on NP at all ages, but only the differences in BW at 3 months (5.1 vs. 4.6 kg) and 12 months (14.1 vs. 12.0 kg) of age were significant (P<0.01). Additionally, FB animals suffered less weight loss than NP animals during periods of limited feed availability. Overall mortality to 12 months of age was 14.5 percent and this represented 45 percent of animal disposals from these flocks. There was no difference in mortality between FB and NP flocks. Peak wet season was associated with the highest mortality and this was attributed mainly to increased parasite challenge during this period. Results of the study indicated potential contribution of FB for the improvement of growth performance of village goats in situations where, due to limited land, free-ranging is limited during the cropping season.

Degradability characteristics of oats hay (harvested at milk stage), oats straw, wheat middlings and forage legumes (lablab (Lablab purpureus)) hay, leaves of sesbania (Sesbania sesban) and tagasaste (Chamaecytisus palmensis)) were evaluated in three sheep given native hay supplemented with cottonseed cake. In Trial 2, 18 fistulated male sheep were given six dietary treatments: ad libitum oats straw with 250 g (as fed) of lablab hay, wheat middlings (WM), sesbania or tagasaste. The effect of these diets on degradabilities of oats hay and oats straw and rumen particulate passage rate (k1) were determined. Oats hay had higher (P<0.05) solubility, potential dry matter (DM) degradability and soluble nitrogen (N) (631 vs. 498 g per kg; P<0.01) than those given straw-lablab diet. Sesbania had the highest potential DM degradability (921 g per kg) followed by WM (846), tagasaste (762) and lablab (706). WM (DM) degraded fastest followed in order by sesbania, lablab and tagasaste. Lablab had the highest soluble N (737 g per kg) and differed (P<0.001) from sesbania (298), WM (526) and tagasaste, which was negative (-38). Sesbania had the highest potential N degradation rates. Supplementation and type of supplement had no effect on any of the degradation characteristics of oats hay. Sheep given WM had the fastest k1 followed in order by lablab, sesbania and tagasaste. Supplementation increased the intakes of DM (P<0.01) and N (P<0.05) but not of neutral detergent fibre (NDF); but supplement types had no effect (P>0.05) on the intake of oats hay, total DM or NDF. It was concluded that supplementation with forage legumes had no effect on oats hay DM degradation rate but tended to enhance k1. Forage legumes that disappear fast from the rumen may induce lower substitution rates.