Fiber quality of carpet-wool sheep breeds
Fiber quality of carpet-wool sheep breeds
H. R. Ansari-Renani1* & S. Moradi2
* Corresponding author, Animal Science Research Institute,
P. O. Box. 31585-1483, Karaj I. R. Iran, email: [email protected]
2
Animal Science Department, Agriculture College, University of Zanjan; Animal
Science Research Institute
Abstract
This experiment was aimed to identify characteristics and comparative
advantage of Iranian sheep breed wool. Fiber characteristics of 270 male and
female sheep of 1, 2, 3 and 4 years of age belonging to Afshari, Zandi, Mehrabani,
Lori and Baluchi sheep breeds were studied. Samples of fiber were taken from the
left midside of sheep and analyzed using standard objective measurements for staple
length (SL), mean fiber diameter (MFD), coefficient of variation of fiber diameter
(FDCV), inner coat fiber ICF, outer coat fiber (OCF), kemp fiber (KF) and clean
wool production (CWP). A general linear model was used to analyze the data usin
SAS package. The mean (s.e) for SL, MFD, FDCV, ICF, OCF, KF and CWP were
110.8±0.1 mm, 36.9±0.5 µm, 50.2±0.8 %, 84.2±0.6 %, 9.8±0.4 %, 5.9±0.4 % and
69.3±0.7 respectively. MFD of 22% of all wool samples les was between 22 – 30
µm. MFD of a further 36 and 42 percent of wool samples was between 31 – 37 µm
and coarser than 37 µm . SL of 12 % of wool samples was shorter than 100 mm and
38 % of samples between 100 – 120 mm and 50 % of samples were longer than 120
mm. There is substantial scope to improve the quality of fiber produced by Iranian
sheep breeds through genetic selection.
Keywords: fiber diameter, fiber types, sheet, staple length, wool
Introducton
Sheep populaton of Iran was 53.8 mllon heads n 2008 whch ranks 5th n the
world (FAO, 2010) wth 27 well defned breeds. Ths populaton of sheep produces
annually about 400,000 tones of meat, 820,000 tones of mlk, 60,000 tones of wool,
22 mllon skn pelts and 188,000 tones of guts (Mnstry of Agrculture, 2009). More
than 1.6 mllon people are drectly nvolved n sheep breedng wth sgnfcant role
n the economy and lvelhood of rural and nomadc socetes.
The fleece of sheep grows from specalzed follcles n the skn. Whle prmary
follcles bear medullated outer coat coarse fber (har) and provde mechancal
Proceeding of the 2nd International Seminar on Animal Industry | Jakarta, 5-6 July 2012
599
protecton, secondary follcles produce non-medullated nner coat fne fber or truewool whch provde thermal protecton (Nxon, et al. 1991). Carpet wool qualty and
value s prmarly determned by fber dameter and length whch reflect the degree
of wool growth and fneness respectvely. Presently, lttle techncal data s avalable
on Iranan sheep fber characterstcs. Accordngly, the present work was desgned
to dentfy fber characterstcs and development optons for future utlty.
Materals and methods
A total of 212 sheep (75 males and 137 females) of Afshar, Zand, Mehraban,
Lor and Baluch breeds respectvely from Zanjan, Qom, Hamedan, Lorestan and
South Khorasan provnces were used n ths study. The sheep grazed all year but
ther dets were supplemented durng wnter wth lmted amount of forage and gran
(contanng 15 g N kg-1 dry matter and 9.1 MJ) and were housed at nght durng
severe weather condtons. Sheep were grouped nto 4 age groups: 1, 2, 3 and 4 years
old.
About 10 g of fber contanng har, kemp (medullated) and true wool (nonmedullated) from the left md-sde ste was cut from a 5 × 5 cm square close to the
skn usng regular scssors. Each sample was separately packaged and labeled wth
ear tag number, age, gender and the breed of the sheep.
To determne the percentage of clean wool weght, net bags contanng samples
wthout contamnants were weghed mmedately, mmersed n three scourng bowls
soluton contanng 0.3% of Na2CO3 and 0.1% of soap and water and strred for 15
mnutes at a temperature of 52±3 oC. Ths procedure was repeated once more but only
wth warm water. Washed samples were oven-dred and weghed and the percentage
of clean wool weght was estmated. The mean fber dameter of the washed wool
sample was measured usng a projecton mcroscope (Chapman, 1960). The average
staple length for each wool sample (n trplcates) was measured to the nearest 0.1
cm.. The number of non-meduallated nner coat fber, meduallated outer coat har
fber and medullated kemp fber was measured (IWTO, 1952). Analyss of varance
was performed usng a general lnear model (GLM) of SAS package (SAS, 1996).
Dfferences between means were tested usng Duncan’s new multple range test.
Results and Dscusson
For the measured wool characterstcs total mean and standard errors are
provded for dfferent breeds, genders and ages (Table 1), and dfferent ranges of
fber are shown (Table 2). 22 and 36% of all wool samples had a fber dameter
between 22-30 and 31-37 µm respectvely. A further 42% of the wool samples were
coarser than 37 µm. All samples were longer than 80 mm but shorter than 147 mm
wth 12% less than 100 mm, 38% between 100 and 120 mm and 50% longer than
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Proceeding of the 2nd International Seminar on Animal Industry | Jakarta, 5-6 July 2012
Proceeding of the 2nd International Seminar on Animal Industry | Jakarta, 5-6 July 2012
Table 1. Mean (±s.e.) of yeld (Y), mean fber dameter (MFD), coeffcent of varaton of fber dameter (FDCV), staple length (SL),
non-medullated nner coat fber (ICF), medullated outer coat fber (OCF) and medullated kemp fber (KF)
No
Mean
Sex
Age
Breed
Male
Female
75
137
1
2
3
4
53
59
44
56
Afshar
Zand
Mehraban
Lor
Balouch
68
21
41
31
51
SL (mm)
MFD (µm)
FDCV (%)
ICF (%)
OCF (%)
KF (%)
Y (%)
110.8±0.1
**
113.7±0.1a
116.9±0.2b
*
104.7±0.2a
112.6±0.2b
113.3±0.2b
122.1±0.3c
*
110.7±0.1b
120.0±0.2c
90.1±0.1a
120.9±0.2c
130.3±0.1d
36.9±0.5
NS
36.2±0.7
37.1±0.6
*
34.2±0.6b
38.1±0.8a
36.2±1.0ab
37.9±1.0a
*
39.5±0.6a
30.6±0.7b
42.1±1.2a
32.8±0.8b
31.0±0.4b
50.2±0.8
**
47.4±1.3a
51.3±0.9b
**
47.2±1.5b
53.3±1.1a
49.2±2.3ab
49.3±1.6ab
*
53.6±1.0b
43.4±1.3c
60.7±2.2a
39.7±1.7c
42.8±1.2c
84.2±0.6
NS
86.0±1.0
83.5±0.8
**
87.3±1.2a
82.0±1.0b
85.4±1.7ab
83.5±1.4ab
*
77.1±0.8c
93.7±1.9a
84.8±1.4b
91.6±1.5a
92.7±0.6a
9.8±0.4
NS
9.4±0.8
10.0±0.5
NS
8.9±0.9
10.5±0.6
8.8±1.0
10.4±0.9
*
14.0±0.5a
6.1±1.9b
5.5±0.7b
7.4±1.1b
6.1±0.5b
5.9±0.4
NS
4.8±0.6
6.4±0.5
**
3.8±0.6b
7.1±0.6a
6.1±1.0a
6.2±0.9a
*
8.7±0.5a
0.8±0.3b
9.5±0.9a
1.0±0.5b
1.2±0.2b
69.3±0.7
**
72.0±1.0a
68.3±0.9b
*
73.4±1.1a
67.0±1.2b
68.7±1.8b
69.3±1.4b
*
64.4±1.0a
63.2±1.6b
76.5±1.3a
74.0±1.8a
75.6±1.3a
* and ** sgnfcantly dfferent at P37
22-30
31-37
>37
22-30
31-37
>37
22-30
31-37
>37
22-30
31-37
>37
22
36
42
5
36
59
60
35
5
3
24
73
35
52
13
43
55
2
120
120
120
120
120
120
12
38
50
0
60
40
0
62
38
85
15
0
0
10
90
0
4
96
80
80
80
80
80
80
5
28
67
9
48
43
5
5
90
5
15
80
0
13
87
0
4
96
120 mm. 67% of all samples had a percentage of nner coat fber greater than 80
whle 28 and 5% of wool samples had a non-meduallated nner coat fber percentage
of 65-80 and less than 65 respectvely.
Percentage of wool fiber types
The 9.8 % medullated OCF n the present study s smlar to that reported for
Arab (10.9 %) (Ashmaw and El-Azzawy, 1980) lower than those n the Awass
sheep n Jordan and Iraq (12%) (Tabbaa et al. ,2001, Al-Azzaw, 1977) and hgher
than those n the Ossm (5.3%) and Rahman (2.3%) sheep (Mara et al., 1992).
There was no sgnfcant dfference n nner coat fber percentage between males
and females of Iranan breeds of the present study, n agreement wth the fndngs of
Jordanan Awass sheep breed. Tabbaa et al. 2001 reported 11 and 10% medullated
nner coat fber for male and female Awass lambs respectvely. One year old sheep
had hghest percentage of nner ICF percentage and decreased wth age. Tabbaa et
al. (2001) and Seoudy et al. (1973) also reported that the percentage of nner coat
decreased wth advancng age n Awass and Bark sheep breeds. One year old sheep
602
Proceeding of the 2nd International Seminar on Animal Industry | Jakarta, 5-6 July 2012
had the lower percentage of kemp fber than older sheep, a fndng n agreement
wth Awass sheep (Tabbaa et al., 2001).
Large varaton n the percentage of ICF (58.9-98.6) and undesrable KF
(0-33.6) demonstate the possblty for mprovng Iranan sheep fleece qualty by
selecton. Farmers need to be traned on selecton crtera for breedng rams based
on subjectve wool assessment to avod keepng breedng males wth hgh kemp
percentage.
Mean fiber diameter and staple length
Zand and Balouch breed had the fnest and longest wool whle Mehraban
sheep had the coarsest and shortest wth 73% of wool samples coarser than 37 µm.
Whle Baluch and Zand wool s used n makng fne carpets, Mehraban wool s
used n very rough and bulky appearance carpets ndcatng the need for breedng
programs to decrease the fber dameter and ncrease the staple length.
Results ndcated that overall fber dameter was 36.9 µm whch s comparable
to Mddle Eastern carpet wool sheep breeds, 36.0 µm for Awass (Tabbaa et al.,
2001), 31.0 µm for Bark (Seoudy et al., 1973), 35.4 µm for Ossm and 31.5 µm
for Rahman (Mara et al., 1992). A sgnfcant effect of age on fber dameter s n
agreement wth younger anmals (Sdwell et al., 1971) and the Bark and Merno
breed crosses n Egypt (Seoudy et al., 1973). The mpact of age could be assocated
wth larger body sze and reduced skn follcle densty and competton for nutrents
and therefore fber dameter of older sheep ncreases. In contrast wth the present
study, ncreasng age had no sgnfcant effect on fber dameter n Awass and Arab
sheep (Tabbaa et al., 2001, Al-Azzaw, 1977, Ashmaw and El-Azzawy, 1980) possbly because the anmals were younger.
The staple length of 110.8±0.1 mm of Iranan sheep breeds of the present
study s lower than that of Awass sheep n Jordan 140.0 mm (Tabbaa et al., 2001)
but hgher than Arab (Ashmaw and El-Azzawy, 1980) Ossm and Rahman sheep
(Mara et al. 1992). A sgnfcant effect of age and sex on staple length s n agreement wth Tabbaa et al. (2001), Sdwell et al. (1971) and Azzaw (1977).
Fiber shedding
It was observed that Afshar sheep was the only breed that had fber sheddng.
Sheddng s also common n double-coated Brtsh sheep breeds such as prmtve
Wltshre and Soay sheep (Slee, 1963) and feral sheep such as Merno breed n
Arapawa Island (Orwn and Whtaker, 1984) however the level of sheddng whch
causes complete wool castng n latter breeds s much hgher.
Concluson
It s apparent that there are dfferences between Iranan sheep breeds n the way
Proceeding of the 2nd International Seminar on Animal Industry | Jakarta, 5-6 July 2012
603
the fbers they produce whch contrbutes to dfferent fleece characterstcs such as
fber dameter, staple length and the level of medullaton. Hand made carpet weavers
and manufacturers prefer fner wool wth lower fber dameter and medullaton
for makng hghly notted/mm2 and softer carpets. Sgnfcant dfference s found
between sheep n wool characterstcs ndcatng the potental to mprove wool
qualty and the need for adoptng proper management and selecton methods.
References
Al-Azzaw, W. A. 1977. A comparatve study of fleece characterstcs n Iraq sheep.
M. Sc. Thess. Caro Unversty, faculty of Agrculture, Egypt. 112 pp.
Ashmaw, G. M., El-Azzawy, W. 1980. Effect of age, localty and system of husbandry on fleece charactertcs of Arab sheep. Egyptan J. Anm. Prod. 20,
179-187.
Chapman, R. E. 1960. Measurement of wool samples. In: Fraser, A. S., Short, B. F.
(Eds). The Bology of Fleece). Anmal Research Laboratores, Techncal Paper
no. 3, Commenwealth Scence and Industral Research Organzaton, Sydney.
Pp. 71-86.
Food and Agrculture Organzaton of the Unted Natons. 2010. www.FAOSTAT.
com.
Mara, I. F. M., Gebrel, G. M., Abou-Fandoud, I. 1992. Relatonshps between
blood groups and some wool characterstcs n Egypton coarse-wool fat-tal
sheep. Anm. Prod. 55, 123-127.
Mnstry of Agrculture, 2009. The role of lvestock and poultry producton on natonal economy.
Nxon, A. J., Gurnsey, M. P., Betterdge, K., Mtchell, R. J., Welch, R. A. S. 1991.
Seasonal har follcle actvty and fber growth n some New Zealand cashmerebearng goats (Capra hrcus). Journal of Zoology. London, 224: 589-598.
Orwn, D. F. G., Whtaker, A. H. 1984. Feral sheep (Ovs ares L.) of Arapawa Island, Merlborough sound, and a comparson of ther wool characterstcs wth
those of four other feral flocks n New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 11: 201-224.
SAS, 2008. SAS Users Gude. Statstcs. Verson (6.12th Edn.), SAS nst. Inc. Cary.
NC.
Seoudy, A. M., Ghanem, Y. S., Ghonen, K. E. 1973. Heteross of wool characterstcs n a cross between Merno and Bark sheep. II. Grease fleece weght,
fber dameter, crmps, densty and fber type rato. Mesopotama J. Agc. 8,
147-158.
Sdwell, G. M. Wlson, R. L., Hourhan, M. E. 1971. Producton n some pure breeds
of sheep and ther crosses. IV. Effect of crossbreedng on wool producton. J.
Anm. Sc. 32, 1099-1102.
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Slee, J. 1963. Brth coat sheddng n Wltshre Horn lamb. Anmal Producton. 5:
301-316.
Tabbaa, M. J., Al-Azzaw, W. A., Campbell, D. 2001. Varaton n fleece characterstcs of Awass sheep at dfferent ages. Small Rumnant Research. 41: 95-100.
Proceeding of the 2nd International Seminar on Animal Industry | Jakarta, 5-6 July 2012
605
H. R. Ansari-Renani1* & S. Moradi2
* Corresponding author, Animal Science Research Institute,
P. O. Box. 31585-1483, Karaj I. R. Iran, email: [email protected]
2
Animal Science Department, Agriculture College, University of Zanjan; Animal
Science Research Institute
Abstract
This experiment was aimed to identify characteristics and comparative
advantage of Iranian sheep breed wool. Fiber characteristics of 270 male and
female sheep of 1, 2, 3 and 4 years of age belonging to Afshari, Zandi, Mehrabani,
Lori and Baluchi sheep breeds were studied. Samples of fiber were taken from the
left midside of sheep and analyzed using standard objective measurements for staple
length (SL), mean fiber diameter (MFD), coefficient of variation of fiber diameter
(FDCV), inner coat fiber ICF, outer coat fiber (OCF), kemp fiber (KF) and clean
wool production (CWP). A general linear model was used to analyze the data usin
SAS package. The mean (s.e) for SL, MFD, FDCV, ICF, OCF, KF and CWP were
110.8±0.1 mm, 36.9±0.5 µm, 50.2±0.8 %, 84.2±0.6 %, 9.8±0.4 %, 5.9±0.4 % and
69.3±0.7 respectively. MFD of 22% of all wool samples les was between 22 – 30
µm. MFD of a further 36 and 42 percent of wool samples was between 31 – 37 µm
and coarser than 37 µm . SL of 12 % of wool samples was shorter than 100 mm and
38 % of samples between 100 – 120 mm and 50 % of samples were longer than 120
mm. There is substantial scope to improve the quality of fiber produced by Iranian
sheep breeds through genetic selection.
Keywords: fiber diameter, fiber types, sheet, staple length, wool
Introducton
Sheep populaton of Iran was 53.8 mllon heads n 2008 whch ranks 5th n the
world (FAO, 2010) wth 27 well defned breeds. Ths populaton of sheep produces
annually about 400,000 tones of meat, 820,000 tones of mlk, 60,000 tones of wool,
22 mllon skn pelts and 188,000 tones of guts (Mnstry of Agrculture, 2009). More
than 1.6 mllon people are drectly nvolved n sheep breedng wth sgnfcant role
n the economy and lvelhood of rural and nomadc socetes.
The fleece of sheep grows from specalzed follcles n the skn. Whle prmary
follcles bear medullated outer coat coarse fber (har) and provde mechancal
Proceeding of the 2nd International Seminar on Animal Industry | Jakarta, 5-6 July 2012
599
protecton, secondary follcles produce non-medullated nner coat fne fber or truewool whch provde thermal protecton (Nxon, et al. 1991). Carpet wool qualty and
value s prmarly determned by fber dameter and length whch reflect the degree
of wool growth and fneness respectvely. Presently, lttle techncal data s avalable
on Iranan sheep fber characterstcs. Accordngly, the present work was desgned
to dentfy fber characterstcs and development optons for future utlty.
Materals and methods
A total of 212 sheep (75 males and 137 females) of Afshar, Zand, Mehraban,
Lor and Baluch breeds respectvely from Zanjan, Qom, Hamedan, Lorestan and
South Khorasan provnces were used n ths study. The sheep grazed all year but
ther dets were supplemented durng wnter wth lmted amount of forage and gran
(contanng 15 g N kg-1 dry matter and 9.1 MJ) and were housed at nght durng
severe weather condtons. Sheep were grouped nto 4 age groups: 1, 2, 3 and 4 years
old.
About 10 g of fber contanng har, kemp (medullated) and true wool (nonmedullated) from the left md-sde ste was cut from a 5 × 5 cm square close to the
skn usng regular scssors. Each sample was separately packaged and labeled wth
ear tag number, age, gender and the breed of the sheep.
To determne the percentage of clean wool weght, net bags contanng samples
wthout contamnants were weghed mmedately, mmersed n three scourng bowls
soluton contanng 0.3% of Na2CO3 and 0.1% of soap and water and strred for 15
mnutes at a temperature of 52±3 oC. Ths procedure was repeated once more but only
wth warm water. Washed samples were oven-dred and weghed and the percentage
of clean wool weght was estmated. The mean fber dameter of the washed wool
sample was measured usng a projecton mcroscope (Chapman, 1960). The average
staple length for each wool sample (n trplcates) was measured to the nearest 0.1
cm.. The number of non-meduallated nner coat fber, meduallated outer coat har
fber and medullated kemp fber was measured (IWTO, 1952). Analyss of varance
was performed usng a general lnear model (GLM) of SAS package (SAS, 1996).
Dfferences between means were tested usng Duncan’s new multple range test.
Results and Dscusson
For the measured wool characterstcs total mean and standard errors are
provded for dfferent breeds, genders and ages (Table 1), and dfferent ranges of
fber are shown (Table 2). 22 and 36% of all wool samples had a fber dameter
between 22-30 and 31-37 µm respectvely. A further 42% of the wool samples were
coarser than 37 µm. All samples were longer than 80 mm but shorter than 147 mm
wth 12% less than 100 mm, 38% between 100 and 120 mm and 50% longer than
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Proceeding of the 2nd International Seminar on Animal Industry | Jakarta, 5-6 July 2012
Table 1. Mean (±s.e.) of yeld (Y), mean fber dameter (MFD), coeffcent of varaton of fber dameter (FDCV), staple length (SL),
non-medullated nner coat fber (ICF), medullated outer coat fber (OCF) and medullated kemp fber (KF)
No
Mean
Sex
Age
Breed
Male
Female
75
137
1
2
3
4
53
59
44
56
Afshar
Zand
Mehraban
Lor
Balouch
68
21
41
31
51
SL (mm)
MFD (µm)
FDCV (%)
ICF (%)
OCF (%)
KF (%)
Y (%)
110.8±0.1
**
113.7±0.1a
116.9±0.2b
*
104.7±0.2a
112.6±0.2b
113.3±0.2b
122.1±0.3c
*
110.7±0.1b
120.0±0.2c
90.1±0.1a
120.9±0.2c
130.3±0.1d
36.9±0.5
NS
36.2±0.7
37.1±0.6
*
34.2±0.6b
38.1±0.8a
36.2±1.0ab
37.9±1.0a
*
39.5±0.6a
30.6±0.7b
42.1±1.2a
32.8±0.8b
31.0±0.4b
50.2±0.8
**
47.4±1.3a
51.3±0.9b
**
47.2±1.5b
53.3±1.1a
49.2±2.3ab
49.3±1.6ab
*
53.6±1.0b
43.4±1.3c
60.7±2.2a
39.7±1.7c
42.8±1.2c
84.2±0.6
NS
86.0±1.0
83.5±0.8
**
87.3±1.2a
82.0±1.0b
85.4±1.7ab
83.5±1.4ab
*
77.1±0.8c
93.7±1.9a
84.8±1.4b
91.6±1.5a
92.7±0.6a
9.8±0.4
NS
9.4±0.8
10.0±0.5
NS
8.9±0.9
10.5±0.6
8.8±1.0
10.4±0.9
*
14.0±0.5a
6.1±1.9b
5.5±0.7b
7.4±1.1b
6.1±0.5b
5.9±0.4
NS
4.8±0.6
6.4±0.5
**
3.8±0.6b
7.1±0.6a
6.1±1.0a
6.2±0.9a
*
8.7±0.5a
0.8±0.3b
9.5±0.9a
1.0±0.5b
1.2±0.2b
69.3±0.7
**
72.0±1.0a
68.3±0.9b
*
73.4±1.1a
67.0±1.2b
68.7±1.8b
69.3±1.4b
*
64.4±1.0a
63.2±1.6b
76.5±1.3a
74.0±1.8a
75.6±1.3a
* and ** sgnfcantly dfferent at P37
22-30
31-37
>37
22-30
31-37
>37
22-30
31-37
>37
22-30
31-37
>37
22
36
42
5
36
59
60
35
5
3
24
73
35
52
13
43
55
2
120
120
120
120
120
120
12
38
50
0
60
40
0
62
38
85
15
0
0
10
90
0
4
96
80
80
80
80
80
80
5
28
67
9
48
43
5
5
90
5
15
80
0
13
87
0
4
96
120 mm. 67% of all samples had a percentage of nner coat fber greater than 80
whle 28 and 5% of wool samples had a non-meduallated nner coat fber percentage
of 65-80 and less than 65 respectvely.
Percentage of wool fiber types
The 9.8 % medullated OCF n the present study s smlar to that reported for
Arab (10.9 %) (Ashmaw and El-Azzawy, 1980) lower than those n the Awass
sheep n Jordan and Iraq (12%) (Tabbaa et al. ,2001, Al-Azzaw, 1977) and hgher
than those n the Ossm (5.3%) and Rahman (2.3%) sheep (Mara et al., 1992).
There was no sgnfcant dfference n nner coat fber percentage between males
and females of Iranan breeds of the present study, n agreement wth the fndngs of
Jordanan Awass sheep breed. Tabbaa et al. 2001 reported 11 and 10% medullated
nner coat fber for male and female Awass lambs respectvely. One year old sheep
had hghest percentage of nner ICF percentage and decreased wth age. Tabbaa et
al. (2001) and Seoudy et al. (1973) also reported that the percentage of nner coat
decreased wth advancng age n Awass and Bark sheep breeds. One year old sheep
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had the lower percentage of kemp fber than older sheep, a fndng n agreement
wth Awass sheep (Tabbaa et al., 2001).
Large varaton n the percentage of ICF (58.9-98.6) and undesrable KF
(0-33.6) demonstate the possblty for mprovng Iranan sheep fleece qualty by
selecton. Farmers need to be traned on selecton crtera for breedng rams based
on subjectve wool assessment to avod keepng breedng males wth hgh kemp
percentage.
Mean fiber diameter and staple length
Zand and Balouch breed had the fnest and longest wool whle Mehraban
sheep had the coarsest and shortest wth 73% of wool samples coarser than 37 µm.
Whle Baluch and Zand wool s used n makng fne carpets, Mehraban wool s
used n very rough and bulky appearance carpets ndcatng the need for breedng
programs to decrease the fber dameter and ncrease the staple length.
Results ndcated that overall fber dameter was 36.9 µm whch s comparable
to Mddle Eastern carpet wool sheep breeds, 36.0 µm for Awass (Tabbaa et al.,
2001), 31.0 µm for Bark (Seoudy et al., 1973), 35.4 µm for Ossm and 31.5 µm
for Rahman (Mara et al., 1992). A sgnfcant effect of age on fber dameter s n
agreement wth younger anmals (Sdwell et al., 1971) and the Bark and Merno
breed crosses n Egypt (Seoudy et al., 1973). The mpact of age could be assocated
wth larger body sze and reduced skn follcle densty and competton for nutrents
and therefore fber dameter of older sheep ncreases. In contrast wth the present
study, ncreasng age had no sgnfcant effect on fber dameter n Awass and Arab
sheep (Tabbaa et al., 2001, Al-Azzaw, 1977, Ashmaw and El-Azzawy, 1980) possbly because the anmals were younger.
The staple length of 110.8±0.1 mm of Iranan sheep breeds of the present
study s lower than that of Awass sheep n Jordan 140.0 mm (Tabbaa et al., 2001)
but hgher than Arab (Ashmaw and El-Azzawy, 1980) Ossm and Rahman sheep
(Mara et al. 1992). A sgnfcant effect of age and sex on staple length s n agreement wth Tabbaa et al. (2001), Sdwell et al. (1971) and Azzaw (1977).
Fiber shedding
It was observed that Afshar sheep was the only breed that had fber sheddng.
Sheddng s also common n double-coated Brtsh sheep breeds such as prmtve
Wltshre and Soay sheep (Slee, 1963) and feral sheep such as Merno breed n
Arapawa Island (Orwn and Whtaker, 1984) however the level of sheddng whch
causes complete wool castng n latter breeds s much hgher.
Concluson
It s apparent that there are dfferences between Iranan sheep breeds n the way
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the fbers they produce whch contrbutes to dfferent fleece characterstcs such as
fber dameter, staple length and the level of medullaton. Hand made carpet weavers
and manufacturers prefer fner wool wth lower fber dameter and medullaton
for makng hghly notted/mm2 and softer carpets. Sgnfcant dfference s found
between sheep n wool characterstcs ndcatng the potental to mprove wool
qualty and the need for adoptng proper management and selecton methods.
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