agriculture

Panama to import sheep to improve native stock

LA PRENSA

counting sheep: Panama´s current sheep population, which stands at about 10,000, suffers from a lack of genetic variety, causing offspring of low birth weight and poor quality meat.1017003

To promote sheep production in the province of Chiriquí, directors at the Instituto de Investigación Agropecuaria de Panamá (IDIAP), are considering importing a Mexican breed and crossing it with another developed by the Institute´s research center in the Gualaca area.

Carlos Saldaña, an IDIAP specialist, said that the Panamanian sheep industry has been promoting increased production in order to meet the demand of foreign residents and tourists, who request lamb dishes in restaurants and markets. However, a high genetic similarity within Panama´s small sheep population has diminished the quality of saleable offspring.

Saldaña hopes to improve the country´s stock of the docile animals by crossing them with higher performance breeds such as Katahdin and Dorp, which are sturdy, low-maintenance and typically reach weights exceeding 200 pounds.

Director of livestock at the Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario (Mida), Ramón Riera, said that greater attention needs to be paid to the sheep industry, and he acknowledged that the country's main problem is a limited population that generates animals of low birth weight and quality.

According to the latest agricultural census of the Contraloría General de la República, taken in 2002, there were approximately 7,000 sheep and 7,000 goats in the country, but Riera insisted that the figure has since grown to about ten thousand each. He admitted that, lacking an organized plan to manage the industry, Panama´s stock consists mainly of animals bred for home consumption.

A purebred Kathadin stud ram costs between $500 and $2,000, depending on its age.