Caractérisation de la race ovine algérienne Tazegzawth

Tazegzawth: Characterization of an Algerian Sheep Breed. This paper aims at, firstly, highlighting the morpho-biometric characteristics of the Tazegzawth sheep breed, and, secondly, describing the sheep farmers profile and their farming practices. The study was carried out in Kabylie (Algeria) which is the breed cradle of Tazegzawth sheep. The survey concerned 16 breed farmers located in the Wilayas of Bejaia and Tizi-Ouzou. Each of the 85 sheep (24 rams and 61 ewes) was characterized and profiled. The study indicated that sheep farming is a diversification activity and not a specialized activity. Other breeds and species are kept by the farmers. Due to the sharing of grazing areas between farmers, anarchic matings occurred contributing to the Tazegzawth breed's decline. Farmers involved in this study were male having on average 12.13±3.84 livestock heads per household. All the farmers used local resources as supplement feeding: organic waste, crop leftovers, hay and olive foliage, ash, elm, oak and fig foliage. Average live weight of males (68.48±1.12 kg) were highly significantly higher (p-value