Social, hygienic-sanitarium and reproductive aspects of sheep meat production in the State of Alagoas, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this work was to develop a diagnosis on sheep meat production in the Alagoas state by studying the social, hygienic-sanitarium and reproductive profile. Twenty-six properties destined to sheep meat production, distributed among twenty-three municipal districts of three Inner regions of the State of Alagoas were analyzed. Questionnaires regarding data of the owner, the property, the herd, and the nutritional, reproductive and hygienic-sanitarium managements, were applied. It was observed that the sheep breeder from Alagoas is an individual with reasonable school education (46.15%), undergraduated, who needs basic information on nutritional, reproductive and sanitarium management procedures and that still suffers the effects of the occurrence of infectious and parasitic diseases. The use of reproduction biotechniques is still insipient, thus making the natural reproduction prevailing in most of the studied herds. The conclusion is that it is necessary to implant training programs and partnerships of the sheep breeders with Federal, State and Municipal institutions, in order to qualify the sheep farmer and to minimize the sanitary-reproductive flaws and to increase the productive chain of this specie in the Alagoas state.