Zulu sheep are found mainly in the rural KwaZulu-Natal province and the numbers are declining due to indiscriminate inbreeding. There is thus a need for phenotypic and genetic characterisation as a first phase for planning conservation strategies. Zulu sheep populations sampled were from Makhathini research station (MS) (n=33), University of Zululand (UZ) (n=21), a community at KwaMthethwa (KM) (n=32) and from Msinga (EM) (n=33). One European breed Appenninica (AP) was used as out group. Microsatellite analysis using 29 microsatellite loci was used in this study. Among the Zulu sheep, the mean number of alleles per locus was the lowest (3.86) in UZ and the highest (6.24) was realised in EM. The mean values of observed and expected heterozygosity were 0.57 and 0.61, respectively. Neighbour-joining tree showed two main Zulu sheep clusters: the UZ, KM and MS sheep populations clustered together and the second cluster included only representatives from the EM population. The STRUCTURE analysis showed that KM, AP and EM were founded in separate clusters, whereas UZ and MS clustered together. The study demonstrated that there was a common origin of the population from the research stations (MS and UZ populations). It also demonstrated that the EM had a different history for the other three populations. This work suggests that exchange of rams could be useful in reducing inbreeding when considering conservation breeding programmes.
Data on linear body measurements (LBM) of ca. 100 Zulu sheep raised under extensive management systems at four sites in northern KwaZulu-Natal were collected over a period of 2.5 years (October 2000 to May 2003. Data were used to quantify the live weight (LW), heart girth (HG), wither height (WH) and scrotum circumference (SC) of sheep in different age groups as well as the effects of some environmental factors on their LBM. Teeth numbers were used to estimate the age of sheep. The variation in LBM was influenced significantly by the location where an animal was raised and by its age. Mature rams that have three and four pairs of incisors had LWs of 37 and 38 kg, HG of 79 and 80 cm and WH of 65 and 64 cm, respectively. Mature ewes had LWs of 30 and 32 kg, HG of 76 cm and WH of 62 and 61 cm. Differences of 15 kg, 18 kg and 22 kg in LW among sheep with full sets of milk teeth and 28 kg, 35 kg and 40 kg among mature sheep were found between populations. The SC increased with age in mature rams (three and four pairs of incisors) and was 27 cm as compared to 18 cm for younger rams. Ear size ranged from ear buds to large ears of 9 -14 cm. However, type of ear-length was found not to have any particular influence on the variation in LBM of Zulu sheep. It was concluded that an investigation of genetic variation between the populations would be necessary to develop effective conservation and utilization programmes and strategies for the breed. _______________________________________________________________________________________
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