Factors affecting reproduction and growth performances in West African Dwarf sheep in sub-Saharan Africa

The West African Dwarf (WAD) sheep is a hairy sheep breed found over the south area of the 14th parallel of West Africa and Central Africa. It is a compact breed with a small mature size and short horizontal lop ears. WAD sheep are capable of limiting parasite multiplication and remain productive in tsetse-infested areas. The dwarf sheep is mainly reared according to traditional rearing system in West Africa and met alone or generally associated with other animal species in almost all households. West African dwarf sheep have low productivity
and weak reproduction and growth performance. Weight gain of lambs is characterized by two phases. The first
phase extends from birth to three months of age with a moderate increase followed by a second phase where
weight increase more fastly from the third month to the seventh month. The birth weight varies between 1.67 kg
and 2.70 kg in conventional rearing system to on average 1.88 kg in traditional rearing system. Average daily gains vary between 78.32 ± 3.18 g and 120 g ± 3.2 during the first post-lambing month and then decrease gradually in the following months. The West African Dwarf sheep are reared primarily for meat production. The carcass yield varies from 43.6% to 55.8% of the live weight of the animal. Factors affecting reproductive and growth performance in WAD are both genetic and non-genetic and include genotype, race, sex, age, birth environment, litter size, production system, season, diet and health follow-up.