THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF SELECTION CHARACTERS OF MOLDOVAN KARAKUL SHEEP

I. Buzu, T. Spătaru

Abstract
    The purpose of this work was to examine, at different historical stages of human society development, the economic importance of Karakul sheep morph characters and to identify the main selection characters, by determining their economic value in that phase.
    The research was done on the Moldovan Karakul sheep flock of the National Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, from the village of Maximovca, Anenii Noi district, Republic of Moldova, as well as the review of specialized literature on Karakul sheep, raised on our country territory, in different historical periods of social development. At the sheep from the examined flock was determined the absolute and relative economic value of morph productive characters, subsequently setting the opportunity of animals selection by some or other characters.
    The research has shown that the relative economic value of morph productive character, which reflects the share of economic income generated from the production revaluation, resulted from this character, in the total amount of the income obtained from the animal, by revaluating of all production per year, may vary depending on the technological solution of sheep exploitation. Thus, the relative economic value of milk production character, varies from 66.0% in the first technological case - where all the lambs are slaughtered for the fur skin, up to 50.1% in the second case - where all the lambs are left to grow up and are fed with milk until the age of 60 days, with subsequent milking of the sheep over 3-4 months and slaughtering for meat of the young sheep at the age of six months, and up to 60.8 % in the third technological (mixed) case – where only a part of newborn lambs (55%) are slaughtered for the fur skin, mainly of over remounted young rams and ewes and with growing of other part of lambs, mainly young ewes for the remount. The relative economic value of the meat production character varies from 15.8 %, in the first technological variant, up to 47.8 % in the second case, and 27.1 % in the third technological variant. The relative economic value of the fur skin together with clot, as its related production, ranks third among the selected characters, with a share of 18.0 - 11.8%.
    As a result of research, were made the conclusions, that, the milk and meat production are the main characters of selection of Moldovan Karakul sheep, but fur skin production, although is a primary selection character of this sheep race, remains a third importance character. To determine the economic value of morph productive characters and to identify their importance for the respective race selection requires regular updating, at least once in ten years.

Key words: evaluation, economic, characters, selection, sheep, Karakul