IMPROVING SHEEP PRODUCTIVITY BY USING FRESH AND FROZEN SEMEN IN PALESTINE

Livestock sector in Palestine is an important one, contributing up to 46% of total agricultural income. The backbone of this sector is sheep and goats (small ruminants), dairy cattle and poultry. This study aimed to improve sheep productivity and develop long term breeding program for sheep breeds and crosses under field conditions in Palestine under different production systems. This experimental study included 169 ram sheep. The single semen collected from each ram was divided into four parts and extended using four extenders: milk, TRIS, TEST, and CJ-2 (diluted to 600 million sperm/ ml) and loaded into 0.25 ml straws for storage at 4 and 15° C. Most of the computer assisted sperm analyze the motility parameters were higher after extension and storage at 4 compared with 15°C (P < 0.05). Ram semen stored using milk or TRIS based extenders at 4° C. They are also retained similar sperm motility parameters but both were higher compared with TEST or CJ-2 extenders after storage for up to 3 days (P <0.05). Results showed that ram race AF recorded (151) with ratio 89.3 % while the race IA recorded (18) with ratio 10.7%. The entire169 ram from Ministry of Agriculture had pregnancy check after 41 days of semen insemination and the result was 100% pregnancy happened. Date of birth was after 5 months of semen insemination. On the other hand, average number of births was1.5. The greatest numbers of births (89) were belonged to females which represent 52.7% of the total births while the male births were 80 with ratio 47.3%. The net average weight of a newborn was about 5.6±1.4 kg. The weights of births were gradually increased and the average weight of a newborn at weaning was about 19.5±2.3 kg. The average amount of milk in the first stage of milking was about 1.7±0.29 L while in the second stage of milking was about 1.6±0.29 L and finally in the third stage of milking was about 1.46±0.28 L. In conclusion, the ram race AF recorded with higher ratio than the race IA. The average weight of a newborn at weaning was about 19.5±2.3 kg. Finally the third stage was reported to be with the least value of all the stages of milking.