The Laticauda or Barbaresca della Campania is an Italian breed of domestic sheep from Campania and Calabria, in southern Italy. It is a fat-tailed breed, which gives rise to the name Laticauda, "broad-tailed". It is raised mainly in its area of origin in the provinces of Avellino, Benevento and Caserta, but is also found in the provinces of Cosenza, Matera and Naples. Like the Barbaresca breed of Sicily, it appears to result from the hybridisation of local breeds with Barbary (or Barbarin) sheep of Maghrebi origin. It has been suggested that these were first brought to the area by the Bourbon king Charles VII of Naples.
The Laticauda is one of the seventeen autochthonous Italian sheep breeds for which a genealogical herd-book is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders. Total numbers for the breed were estimated at in 1983; in 2013 the number recorded in the herdbook was . In 2014 the region of Campania estimated the total number at head.
In 2014 the Barbaresca della Campania was reported to DAD-IS separately from the Laticauda.
Use
Lambs are usually slaughtered at the age of about a month, at a weight of . Milk yield is about litres per lactation. The milk has 7–13% fat and 5.5–8.5% protein; it is the only milk used in the production of Pecorino di Laticauda Sannita, a pecorino cheese for which DOP status has been requested. It is also used to make the Pecorino di Carmasciano.
References Le razze ovine e caprine in Italia (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia: Ufficio centrale libri genealogici e registri anagrafici razze ovine e caprine, page 23. Archived 21 September 2013.
Consistenze Provinciali della Razza 28 Laticauda Anno 2013 (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia: Banca dati. Archived 2 February 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. .
Breed data sheet: Laticauda/Italy. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed January 2014.
Breed data sheet: Barbaresca della campania (laticauda)/Italy. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed January 2014.
Valerie Porter, Ian Lauder Mason (2002). Mason's World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Types, and Varieties (fifth edition). Wallingford: CABI. .
Francesca Ciotola, Vincenzo Peretti (2005). Razze zootecniche in pericolo di estinzione: la pecora Laticauda (in Italian). Vita in campagna 2005 (5): 59. Archived 1 February 2018.
Prodotti tipici: Pecorino di Laticauda Sannita (in Italian). Regione Campania. Archived 31 October 2013.