The Fabrianese 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 ...

of domestic sheep from 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 ...

region of central Italy. It takes its name from the town and comune of Fabriano, in the province of Ancona. The Fabrianese was created as a dual-purpose breed in the 1960s by cross-breeding local breeds of the

Apennines 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 the Marche with rams of the Bergamasca breed from the Alps of

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

. It is raised in the eastern foothills of the Apennines, in the provinces of Ancona,

Ascoli Piceno Ascoli Piceno (; la, Asculum; dialetto ascolano: Ascule) is a town and ''comune'' in the Marche region of Italy, capital of the province of the same name. Its population is around 46,000 but the urban area of the city has more than 93,000. Geo ...

and Macerata in the Marche, and in the province of Terni in Umbria.

History

The Fabrianese 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; the herdbook was established in 1974. In 1983 the breed population was estimated at about 25,000 head, of which 4600 were registered. In 1997 the total number was about 70,000. In 2013 the number registered for the breed was 3342.

Use

The average age and weight of lambs at slaughter is unclear; the target is approximately at 60 days. The milk yield of the Fabrianese, including that taken by the lambs, averages in 180 days for primiparous, and for

pluriparous In biology and human medicine, gravidity and parity are the number of times a woman is or has been pregnant (gravidity) and carried the pregnancies to a viable gestational age (parity). These terms are usually coupled, sometimes with additional te ...

, ewes.

References

Sheep breeds Sheep breeds originating in Italy {{sheep-stub