Hasan Emad Almasri(1) Abdul Rahman Al-Darwish(1) and Hiba Albadee*(1)
(1).Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Aleppo, Aleppo, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Hiba Albadee. E-Mail: hibaalbadee@gmail.com).
Received: 25/06/2019 Accepted: 06/09/2019
Abstract
The current research was executed to evaluate the effect of non-genetic factors such as age and weight of ewe at lambing, type of birth, calving month and sex of lamb on chemical composition of Awassi sheep milk (fats, protein and non-fat solids SNF) in Minyan, west of Aleppo, during the period 2015-2018. The overall mean of fats, protein and non-fat solids of milk were (7.20 ± 1.10, 6.35 ± 1.15 and 11.89 ± 1.31%), respectively. The results of the study showed that age of ewe had a highly significant effect (P<0.01) on milk composition. The highest values of fats (8.50%), protein (7.62%) and non-fat solids of milk (13.35%) were obtained for 4-year-old ewes. Weight of ewe at lambing had a highly significant effect (P<0.01) on milk composition. The highest fats value of milk (7.95%) was found for ewes weighing over 60 kg, whereas the highest values of protein (6.73%) and non-fat solids of milk (12.36%) were found for ewes weighing less than 50 kg. Type of birth had a highly significant effect (P<0.01) on milk composition. Individual birth surpassed twin birth for fats, protein and non-fat solids of milk (7.57, 6.37 and 11.91 versus 6.32, 5.52 and 10.87%). Calving month had a significant effect (P<0.05) on fats and highly significant effect (P<0.01) on protein and non-fat solids of milk. The highest values of fats (7.69%), protein (7.55%) and non-fat solids of milk ((13.27%) were obtained from ewes that born in October, while the lowest values (6.75, 4.90 and 10.10%) were achieved in January and February, respectively. Sex of lamb had a highly significant effect (P<0.01) on milk composition. Male birth ewes (7.55%) surpassed females (6.84%) for fats in milk, whereas female birth ewes surpassed males for protein and non-fat solids of milk (6.39 and 11.95 versus 5.84 and 11.25%), respectively. It is concluded from the research that most of the studied factors have an important effect on milk quality of Awassi sheep, which requires studying them, determining their impact and attention to the administrative aspects of the herd, to raise the level of performance and maximize the economic return.
Key words: Awassi sheep, Milk composition, Non-genetic factors.