The Girgentana or Nturcina is an Italian breed of domestic goat indigenous to the province of Agrigento, in the southern part of the Mediterranean island of Sicily. The name of the breed derives from , the name of Agrigento in local Sicilian language. There were in the past more than head in the hills and coastal zone of the province. In the twenty-first century the breed is in danger of disappearance.
History
The Girgentana was first described by Arturo Magliano in 1930; the origins of the breed are unknown. The animals could have been introduced to Sicily by Greek colonists about 700 BC, or in the eighth century AD by Arab invaders. identified the Girgentana with Capra prisca and the Ram in a Thicket statues excavated at Ur by Leonard Woolley in 1927–28. Leopold Adametz proposed that it is descended, at least in part, from the markhor, Capra falconeri, a species of Central Asian goat-antelope; the horns are superficially similar, but spiral in opposite directions – the right horn of the Girgentana spirals clockwise from the base (like a corkscrew), while in the markhor it is the left.
The Girgentana is one of the eight autochthonous Italian goat breeds for which a genealogical herdbook is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders. It was formerly numerous in the province of Agrigento, where there were more than in the coastal area and the hilly hinterland. It has since fallen rapidly, to the point that measures for its protection may be needed. At the end of 1993 the population was estimated at 524. The conservation status of the breed was listed as "endangered" by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2007. At the end of 2013 the registered population was 390.
Characteristics
The goats are of medium size: nannies stand some at the withers and have an average weight of , while billies are on average about taller and weigh approximately . The head is small and delicate, with a convex profile and erect ears; beards are present in both sexes. The horns are large and of twisted spiral form, almost joined at the base and rising almost vertically. The coat is white, sometimes tinged on the face with yellow or – more rarely – with grey.
Use
The Girgentana is reared principally for milk. Yields are of the order of in a lactation of 150–180 days.
Lambs are slaughtered at between 30 and 60 days old, when they weigh from .
References
Arturo Magliano (1930). La capra girgentana (in Italian). L'Italia agricola. 67: 481–498.
Le razze ovine e caprine in Italia (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia: Ufficio centrale libri genealogici e registri anagrafici razze ovine e caprine. Archived 21 September 2013.
Consistenze Provinciali della Razza 42 Girgentana Anno 2013 (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia: Banca dati. Accessed May 2014.
Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to: The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. . Archived 23 June 2020.
Daniele Bigi, Alessio Zanon (2008). Atlante delle razze autoctone: Bovini, equini, ovicaprini, suini allevati in Italia (in Italian). Milan: Edagricole. .
Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. .
Breed data sheet: Girgentana / Italy. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed May 2014.
Strutture Zootecniche (Dec. 2009/712/CE - Allegato 2 - Capitolo 2) (in Italian). Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali. Section I (e). Archived 4 May 2014.
Johann Wolfgang Amschler (1930). Über Capra aegagrus und Capra falconeri als Hausziegen im Kaukasus (in German). Archiv für Tierernährung und Tierzucht. 3: 307–338.
Leopold Adametz (1932). Über die Stellung der Ziege von Girgenti im zootechnischen Systeme und ihre angebliche Herkunft von Capra falconeri (in German). Zeitschrift für Tierzüchtung und Züchtungsbiologie einschließlich Tierernährung 25: 231-236. .