Workshop in Schimatari on 12-13th June 2010

Conclusions of Working Group 1

Theme 1 (Saturday afternoon)

Difficulties encountered by breeders:

Pastures and Forages

The intensive breeding of sheep and goats in Greece without any additional funds by the state will be not financially viable in the near future. The most prominent reason is the cost for the purchase of forage, since most of it is imported by other countries.

On the contrary, the traditional extensive breeding of sheep and goats could be profitable, since the raised animals feed themselves in the pastures. However, the pasture administration in Greece is not well organized. In most regions there are not demarcated pastures. Due to the urbanization of several areas, the local flocks are banished out of them. The available pastures are not administrated by a single authority, but are under the supervision of the local municipalities, that tend to favor exclusively those breeders that are their citizens.

Also most people have the impression that the flocks are responsible for the deforestation. The reality is that the flocks protect the forest, since the animals eat the grass, which is flammable during the summer. The grazing is detrimental only in areas that have been burnt, since the grazers eat the leaves of the little trees. Also the grazing can eliminate the vegetation in small islands, where the sheep and goats are bred in huge populations, since the breeders receive subsidies proportional to the size of their live stock.

The social status of the sheep and goat breeders

Despite the fact that most Greeks have ancestors that used to be breeders of sheep and goats, the contemporary social status of such breeders is quite low. Most sheep and goat breeders are middle aged men, while their sons are unwilling to step in their shoes. The nomad style of life is not attractive to young people, and the profession is not very profitable. The new generation prefers to work in urban areas, where the way of living is more appealing.

Selling of animal products

In Greece, the main vendible product of sheep and goat husbandry is milk. Sheep and goat milk is used by industry for the production of cheese (mainly feta) and yogurt. An additional income is provided for the breeders by the meat of lambs and kids, which is consumed mainly in Easter period. The Modern Greek family usually does not consume ovine and caprine meat, because the relevant dishes are more elaborated and prefers instead bovine and swine meat. However, ovine and caprine meat derived from indigenous breeds could be promoted as biological product.

Despite the fact that ovine and caprine milk has a good price in the market, most of its profit is attributed to the traders. Breeders should establish their own unions in order to promote their goods in the market. Also according to the EU Rule 852/2004 breeders have to right to sale their products to the public in their premises. Nevertheless, they should follow the appropriate hygiene rules (e.g. they should conserve their products in professional freezers and slaughter their animals in approved mobile abattoirs).

Cross breeding of indigenous breeds with imported ones

Several breeders cross-breed their indigenous sheep and goat with imported animals, in order to increase their flocks’ milk productivity. The mean milk productivity of indigenous sheep per animal is about 120-170 kilos every year, while the imported animals guarantee a higher productivity (up to 270 kilos per animal). Nevertheless, in several occasions the imported animals do not yield the expected productivity, because the breeding conditions are not appropriate for them and due to the fact that are more susceptible to endemic diseases.

However most of the breeders ignore the fact that the indigenous breeds could be more profitable, under better breeding conditions and with the application of a successful program of genetic improvement. In this respect, only the best rams and ewes should be selected and used for delivering off springs. However, such a genetic improvement program should not be applied in those indigenous breeds which have a low population (under 4.000 individuals), because valuable genes could be lost. Under such circumstances, improving of the animals’ nutrition and husbandry should suffice.

Genetic improvement of indigenous breeds could be achieved with the following methods. The first is the application of estrus synchronization and artificial insemination, but technical skill and additional funds should be provided. The second is the separation of the ewes in groups, and the breeding of each group of ewes with only one ram. This method requires a good organization by the farmer. The third option is to interchange rams between flocks. But most breeders are reluctant to use rams outside their premises, because they fear that these rams could import a contagious disease to their flock.

Also breeders should not ignore the fact that several products with a local brand name (like feta), should be produced exclusively by animals of indigenous breeds. Also nowadays a new type of tourism is under development, the “gastronomic tourism”, which basically means that visitors from other places or countries would like to taste local specialties derived from products of indigenous animals.

Decrease of subsidies

So far, most breeders used to consider the EU subsidies as an additional income, and did not realize that such funds are only temporary incentives, which target to encourage structural changes and enhance the productivity of their flocks. Nowadays, under the storm of the international economic crisis, such subsidies will be reduced drastically, and therefore the viability of their enterprise should not depend on them.

On the other hand, the prerequisites for receiving such subsidies tend to be more complicated. In most cases, compliance of the breeders with environmental and animal welfare rules is required. However, most of them do not have the know-how in order to comply successfully with such prerequisites, and need the advice of experts in this field.

Contagious diseases

Recently, in Greek legislation a provision that every animal breeding enterprise should cooperate with a veterinary surgeon has be imposed. However, most breeders can not afford to pay a veterinary surgeon for his/her services on regular basis. Also an EU program provides an agronomic adviser to the breeders in order to assist them to comply successfully with EU’s animal welfare and environmental prerequisites. Nevertheless, most of them are reluctant on participate in this program, because they have to pay a contribution.

Despite the EU’s subsidies, several farmers have not acquired a milking unit and milk their animals manually. However the manual milking enhances the bacterial flora in the milk and deteriorates its quality. Additionally, in most regions, due to lack of funds and personnel, veterinary services have not managed yet to eradicate some notorious contagious diseases, such as brucellosis and hydatidosis. Also vaccines for exotic diseases such as contagious agalactia are lacking, because these diseases do not exist in countries that manufacture animal vaccines.

Theme 2 (Sunday morning)

Genealogy and reproduction

1. Incentives for keeping breeding data

EU provides subsidies in order to encourage breeders’ unions to keep their own stud books. Nevertheless, so far only the union of Chios sheep breeders has obtained to be approved by the Greek state as the official keeper of Chios sheep genealogical records. The other breeders’ unions depend on the Centers of Genetic Improvement of Animals to keep these records on their behalf. The Centers of Genetic Improvement of Animals are public services that belong to the Greek Ministry of Agriculture.

The main reason why most unions are reluctant to undertake the responsibility of keeping official breeding records, is economic insufficiency. The breeders’ unions should gain their profit to compensate their expenses from the sale of accredited genitors, since the annual contributions by their members do not suffice. However, the market price of the accredited genitors of indigenous breeds is not very satisfactory, because most farmers use to buy animals from imported breeds. Also, on several occasions, the EU funds for keeping the breeding data are attributed to the breeders’ unions with great delay.

Besides the financial problems, breeders’ unions have to cope also with technical problems. Despite the fact that labeling of the breeding animals is compulsory by the EU and Greek legislation, several farmers neglect to label their off springs during the lactation period, and afterwards is difficult to recall the dam of every single lamb/kid. Also in most cases the labeling is performed with numbered earrings. In some cases such earrings drop of the animals and should be substituted. The owners often neglect to re-label their animals and later on can not recall their former identity. Recently, the labeling with boluses has been introduced, but several animals tend to get rid of such labeling-boluses during eructation (e.g. Scopelos goats). Additionally, most breeders are not well educated, and are reluctant to fill-in all the required forms sent by their Union (e.g. certification of mating and birth).

2. Necessity of studbooks -Methods used for keeping breeding data

Keeping of breeding (genealogic) data is essential for the estimation of the productivity of the animal stock, the selection of the best genitors and the genetic improvement of the breed by the mating of these accredited genitors. Also in indigenous breeds with small populations, keeping a studbook is essential in order to avoid the inbreeding.

The only way to keep breeding records successfully is to apply a program of monitored mating. This could be achieved with the following three methods. The first is the application of estrus synchronization and artificial insemination, but technical skill and additional funds should be provided.

The second is the separation of the dams in groups, and the breeding of each group of ewes with only one ram. This method requires a good organization by the farmer. Several farmers are reluctant to follow this method, because increases the management cost. Also a lot of breeders prefer to mate a dam with several rams in order to get a higher rate of fertility.

The third option is to interchange rams between flocks. But most breeders are reluctant to use rams outside their premises, because they fear that these rams could import a contagious disease to their flock.

General conclusions

The indigenous breeds can be more productive, with the prerequisite that the breeding conditions are improved, as soon as programs of genetic improvement are applied. Selection of the best genitors should be followed by the monitored mating between them and keeping breeding records. Regarding the fact that the indigenous small ruminant breeds are well adapted to their environment and are resistant to several parasitic endemic diseases, have a better chance to be productive in comparison to imported breeds, at least in extensive breeding farms. This is very important, since most intensive breeding enterprises cope with financial difficulties due to inflation of forage prices and decrease of EU subsidies.

Also, in order to gain more profits, breeders of indigenous small ruminants should promote their products in the market through their own Unions. Also the manufacture of several local products (mainly cheese and yogurt) is based on breeding of indigenous breeds. In this respect the status of small ruminant indigenous breeds could be improved by the promotion of those local products.

Proposed Activities of Amaltheia in the near future

The members of Amaltheia have discussed the necessity of undertaking as soon as possible conservation programs for the following indigenous breeds:

Sheep: Ikaria breed (32 animals in 1 flock), Sarakatsaniko breed (1228 animals in 4 flocks), Argos breed (200 animals in 3 flocks), Zante breed (971 animals in 10 flocks), Agrinion breed (860 animals in 4 flocks), Thrace  Breed (200 animals in 1 flock), Kymis breed (850 animals in 12 flocks), Florinas (242 animals in 2 flocks) (data by Iosif Biselis Professor of University of Agriculture)

Also monitoring programs should be established for the following breeds: 

Goat: Karystos breed, (35.000 animals), Kefallinias breed (10,000 animals), Ikarias breed (25.000 animals recently reduced to 2000) (data by Vasileios Papas)

Cattle: Sykia breed (100-200 animals), Katerini breed (200 animals)

Horses: Messaras breed, Aravani horses