Revisiting Palla Strain of Nellore Sheep: Morphological, Production and Reproduction Characteristics

Palla is an underexplored hairy meat strain of Nellore sheep, mainly restricted to Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. A demographic survey and comprehensive investigation were conducted to assess the morphometric, productive, and reproductive characteristics of Palla sheep across 38 mandals of four revenue divisions in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. The average flock size in the field flock was 65.00±0.98, consisting of 2 rams, 39 ewes, and 24 lambs. Palla sheep are medium to large in body size with a white coat colour. The overall least squares means for body length (BL), height at withers (HW), chest girth (CG), and paunch girth (PG) at two - tooth were 69.16±0.47, 74.67±0.43, 79.47±0.36, and 78.03±0.38 cm, respectively. The mean body weights (BW) of lambs at birth, 3, and 6 months were 3.68±0.07, 14.45±0.27, and 22.03±0.20 kg, respectively. In adults, the mean body weights at 2, 4, 6-tooth and full mouth stages were 31.89±0.35, 36.85±0.37, 40.09±0.32, and 42.76±0.42 kg, respectively. The least squares means for age at first mating in males and females were 384.43±9.25 and 375.71±9.36 days, respectively. The average age at first lambing was 576.24±8.68 days and lambing interval was 302.95±2.64 days. The average litter size was 1.07±0.03. The association between HW and BW (R²=0.979) was maximum, followed by CG and BW (R²=0.970). The present study provided the necessary data to make decisions and develop effective strategies for the characterization, conservation, reproduction, and selection of animals.