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Indigenous Sheep Breeding Project (ISBP)
Recent global concerns on the loss of diversity of
farm animal genetic resources have led to renewed
initiatives to conserve these resources and to identify
and characterise many breeds that were once considered
inferior to more conventional international breeds of
cattle, sheep, goats, horses, pigs and poultry. This
will be an attempt to co-ordinate efforts to conserve
indigenous sheep species.
South Africa has variety
of indigenous breeds of farm animals that have played a
major role in the social, cultural and economic history
of the country. Most of these animals had their origins
in Eastern and Northern Africa and moved southwards with
migrating tribes to reach and enter South Africa between
200 and 700 AD. In the process, they travelled through
areas rife with animal diseases and parasites and
adapted to and settled in a variety of biomes.
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