Study of natural wool shedding

Wool production in Europe became unprofitable compared to the meat or milk productions. One major reason is that the wool income is lower than the cost of shearing. The Romane breed showed little ability to shed. We decided to introgress in the Romane breed the phenotype of wool-shedding of the Martinik Hair breed. Indeed, the Martinik Hair sheep have the ability to annually naturally wool-shed. The experimental trial of introgression was realized on 4 successive backcrosses from the Martinik Hair to the Romane breed. This introgressed breeding stock (n=150 ewes) was then selected using estimated breeding values based on shedding extension. A high heritability estimate (0.50 ± 0.09) and a large genetic gain (2.2 genetic standard deviations) on wool-shedding were observed after 6 generations of selection.