The Romanian Tsigai sheep breed, their potential and the challenges for research

With 24.3% of all sheep, the Tsigai is the second most important sheep breed in Romania. Nevertheless, until 1989 it was mainly kept for wool production as well as milk and meat. Since 1989, the number of Tsigai sheep has decreased by 44 %to 2.1 million head.The reason is the loss of profitability of wool production. Nowadays, lamb and milk are the most important products. In a empirical study carried out in 2011, it was found that 77 % of the sheep farmers in the traditional Tsigai sheep region plan to continue to improve the genetic performance and the number of heads of the sheep herds by breeding with East Friesian milk sheep (for milk) and Suffolk (for meat). Due to this trend, the number of traditional Tsigai sheep is still decreasing and the Tsigai is in danger of becoming a rare breed. Together with the sheep farmers and the farmers' associations, the future goals of the research by the national Tsigai Research Station in Reghin were identified and the focus of the work defined. It was decided to preserve the Tsigai sheep breed with the development of new functions (landscape management), the use of added values in marketing (endangered local breed) and premium products (organic). This will be the future focus of the Tsigai Research Station in Reghin.