The Appenninica is a modern

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

from the central

Apennine mountains The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

of Italy. It is raised principally in

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

and

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

, but also in

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, , ; nap, label=Neapolitan language, Abruzzese Neapolitan, Abbrùzze , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; nap, label=Sabino dialect, Aquilano, Abbrùzzu; #History, historically Abruzzi) is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy wi ...

Emilia–Romagna egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title ...

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, the

Marche Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...

and

Campania Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...

. The breed was created in the 1970s by cross-breeding and subsequent selection of local breeds such as the Bariscianese, the Casentinese, the Chietina Varzese, the Pagliarola, the Perugina del piano, the Pomarancina, the Senese delle Creti and the

Vissana The Vissana is a breed of domestic sheep from the province of Macerata, in the Marche in central Italy. It may be extinct. It takes its name from the comune of Visso in the Monti Sibillini, and is or was raised mostly in that area, extendin ...

with Bergamasca rams and with the French Ile-de-France and

Berrichon du Cher The Berrichon du Cher is a French breed of domestic sheep. It is one of two breeds derived from the old Berrichon of the Berry region of central France, the other being the Berrichon de l'Indre. The Berrichon derived from the Boischaut, Brenne, C ...

, with the aim of increasing the meat yield. The breed was recognised in 1980 and a herdbook established in 1981. Although this is a medium-coarse

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. As ...

breed, it is raised primarily for

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

. It has been used in the development of the

Laticauda Sea kraits are a genus of venomous elapid sea snakes (subfamily: Laticaudinae), ''Laticauda''. They are semiaquatic, and retain the wide ventral scales typical of terrestrial snakes for moving on land, but also have paddle-shaped tails for swimmi ...

breed in the Campanian Apennines.

Characteristics

The Appenninica is hornless (polled) in both sexes; the ears are carried horizontally. The average weight for mature rams is ; average height at the withers is and average length . When mature, ewes weigh on average 56 kg, are 69 cm at the withers and are 73 cm long. Rams yield about of wool while ewes provide 1.5 kg. The wool has a diameter of 30 to 35 micrometres. The breed is well adapted to the terrain of the

Apennine Mountains The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...

Emilia Emilia may refer to: People * Emilia (given name), list of people with this name Places * Emilia (region), a historical region of Italy. Reggio, Emilia * Emilia-Romagna, an administrative region in Italy, including the historical regions of Emi ...

and

regions of Italy. It is one of the seventeen autochthonous Italian sheep breeds for which a genealogical herdbook is kept by the

Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia The Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, or roughly "national association of pastoralists", is the Italian national body responsible for the administration of sheep- and goat-breeding. It maintains the herd books for more than a hundred in ...

, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders. From 1993 to 2007, the population of the Appenninica declined from greater than 160,000 to 3438. In 2013 total numbers for the breed were 9791.

References

* R. Bozzi, P. Degl'Innocenti, P. Rivera Diaz, L. Nardi, A. Crovetti, C. Sargentini, A. Giorgetti (July 2009)
Genetic characterization and breed assignment in five Italian sheep breeds using microsatellite markers
''Small Ruminant Research'' 85 (1): 50–57. (Abstract; for full article). * Emiliano Lasagna, Vincenzo Landi, Matteo Bianchi, Amparo Martínez Martínez, Francesca Maria Sarti (2009)
Genetic characterization of Appenninica sheep breed by microsatellites
''Italian Journal of Animal Science'' 8 (2s) (Proceedings of the 18th ASPA Congress, Palermo, 9–12 June 2009): 96–98. * G. Filippini, F. Aloisio, F. Cecchi, M. Biagetti, F. Macchioni, R. Ciampolini, G. Venditti, E. Ciani, E. Mazzanti, C. Sebastiani and D. Cianci (2006)
An investigation on the genetic resistance to Parasitical Fauna in Appenninica sheep breed
''Proceedings of the 8th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 13–18 August 2006'': 38–41. * F. Cecchi, R. Ciampolini, F. Macchioni, M. Biagetti, E. Ciani, G. Filippini, E. Mazzanti, M. Tancredi, P. Papa, and D. Deni (2006)
The Genetic resistance to Coccidia in Appenninica sheep
''Proceedings of the 8th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, 13–18 August 2006'': 162–165. * Lancioni H, Di Lorenzo P, Ceccobelli S, Perego UA, Miglio A, Landi V, Antognoni MT, Sarti FM, Lasagna E, Achilli A. (2013 )
Phylogenetic Relationships of Three Italian Merino-Derived Sheep Breeds Evaluated through a Complete Mitogenome Analysis
''PLOS One''. 8 (9): e73712. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0073712. {{Sheep breeds of Italy Sheep breeds Sheep breeds originating in Italy

Characteristics

References

Further reading