Organic Lamb Meat Production in Serbia Based on Autochthonous Zackel Breed: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

The global growing tendency of lamb and mutton meat production has been emphasized. The fastest growing meat production industry on a global level is lamb and mutton meat production. Lamb meat production increase is primarily based on genetic improvement of sheep breeds, reproduction management and disease reduction. The new Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development in Serbia from 2014 to 2024 defines goals and priorities for further development of agriculture. One of priority topics is the promotion of organic production. Organic lamb production is a great opportunity for rural regions development. Botanical composition analyses, as well as plants nutrition value, have shown that natural resources of regions in Serbia have great potentials for organic lamb production. Basic principles of organic production promote well adapted, autochthonous breeds. Various types of Zackel sheep are important genetic resources, evolutionary adapted on specific conditions and extreme climate. The study evaluated the value of various types of Zackel sheep populations in the regions where they are traditionally reared with special emphasis on some traits such as health status and robustness, important for organic production. Disease frequency analysis in different Zackel type populations has shown that gastrointestinal parasitic infections represent the main health problem in sheep farming. The introduction of veterinary medicine standards in organic sheep production is a great challenge. Considering that conventional prevention and medication are forbidden in organic production, veterinary control of parasitic infections is not satisfying. Our investigations are focused on preventive measure and genetic resistance/tolerance to parasitic infections of various types of Zackel sheep as very important for organic lamb production.