The Potential for Meat Production of the Romanian Tsigai Sheep Breed

The current study was conducted in order to evaluate the potential for meat production of the Tsigai sheep, as maternal breed, when crossed with native Palas Meat Breed and imported specialised breeds for meat production, such as Suffolk and German Blackface. The article is a review in which up-to-date results on crossbreeding between the Tsigai sheep and meat sire breeds are being presented. The results were obtained by different authors between 1976 and 2016. The results are presented based on the applied fattening technology and the genotype structure of the lambs. The growth rates and the quality of the meat and of resulting carcasses were superior in all cases in the intensive fattening systems in the crossbred lambs, compared to the Romanian local Tsigai breed.