8th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, August 13-18, 2006, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil LAMB PRODUCTION BY FecB HETEROZYGOUS CARRIER AND NON-CARRIER EWES IN SMALLHOLDER FLOCKS IN MAHARASHTRA STATE OF INDIA C. Nimbkar 1,2 , P.M. Ghalsasi 2 , K.M. Chavan 2 , M. H. Nalawade 2 , S.W. Walkden-Brown 1 , V.S. Gupta 3 , V.C. Pardeshi 3 and J.H.J. van der Werf 1 1 School of Rural Science and Agriculture, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia 2 Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Phaltan 415 523, Maharashtra, India 3 National Chemical Laboratory, Division of Biochemical Sciences, Pune 411 008, India INTRODUCTION A breeding program for the introgression of the FecB (Booroola) prolificacy gene from the small Garole breed into the Deccani breed and a composite has been established at the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) at Phaltan in the dry monsoonal climate of southern Maharashtra State of India. The new crossbred type with only Deccani and Garole breeds was termed ‘Fecund Deccani’ (FD) and the type which also comprised Bannur and/or Awassi breeds was termed ‘Fecund Composite’ (FC) (Nimbkar et al., 2002). Nimbkar (2006) reported that one copy of the FecB gene increased litter size per ewe conceived by 0.37 lambs and per ewe lambing by 0.64 lambs in Deccani and crossbred ewes at NARI. The objective of this program is to increase the efficiency and profitability of lamb production in smallholder flocks in this Deccan plateau region. The FecB gene was introduced into local smallholder flocks of Deccani sheep through introduction of heterozygous rams, artificial insemination using semen of heterozygous and homozygous rams and introduction of heterozygous crossbred ewes. Rams and ewes of both FD and FC types were used for introduction. This paper presents preliminary results of the number of lambs born and weaned per ewe lambing for heterozygous and non-carrier ewes introduced into or produced in those smallholder flocks. MATERIAL AND METHODS Location. Phaltan is situated at latitude 18 0 north and longitude 74 0 east. Ewes. Lambing records available were of 1055 non-carrier and 28 heterozygous ewes born in 26 smallholder flocks and 59 non-carrier and 59 heterozygous ewes introduced from NARI into 14 of the 26 flocks, about a month and 2.5 months before lambing in 2003 and 2004 (Table 1). The ewes were introduced into 11 flocks within 6 km and three flocks at a distance of 22 km from the Institute’s farm near Phaltan. All 118 heterozygous and non-carrier ewes introduced by NARI were crossbred (FD or FC). All 28 heterozygous ewes and twelve of the non-carrier ewes born in smallholder flocks were crosses. Table 1. Number of ewes and number of lambing records from ewes of different origin and FecB genotype in smallholder flocks around Phaltan in Maharashtra State of India FecB genotype of ewes Origin of ewes FecB + /FecB + FecB B /FecB + Total Ewes Records Ewes Records Ewes Records Smallholder flocks 1055 2501 28 35 1083 2536 NARI 59 141 59 138 118 279 Total 1114 2642 87 173 1201 2815