The Girgentana is an Italian breed of domestic goat indigenous to the province of Agrigento, in the southern part of the Mediterranean island of Sicily.[3] The name of the breed derives from Girgenti, the name of Agrigento in local Sicilian language. There were in the past more than 30000 head in the hills and coastal zone of the province.[2] In the twenty-first century the breed is in danger of disappearance.
History
The Girgentana was first described by Arturo Magliano in 1930;[4] the origins of the breed are unknown.[2] The animals could have been introduced to Sicily by Greek colonists about 700 BC, or in the eighth century AD by Arab invaders.[2]Johann Wolfgang Amschler [de] identified the Girgentana with Capra prisca and the Ram in a Thicket statues excavated at Ur by Leonard Woolley in 1927–28.[2][5]Leopold Adametz proposed that it is descended, at least in part, from the markhor, Capra falconeri, a species of Central Asian goat-antelope;[2][6]: 231 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.[7]: 381
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.[8][9] It was formerly numerous in the province of Agrigento, where there were more than 30000 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 FAO in 2007.[1] At the end of 2013 the registered population was 390.[10]
Characteristics
The Girgentana has characteristic horns, twisted into a spiral form. It has a long beard and a primarily white coat with grey-brown hair around the head and throat. It has a good production of high-quality milk.
^ abcdefghijDaniele Bigi, Alessio Zanon (2008). Atlante delle razze autoctone: Bovini, equini, ovicaprini, suini allevati in Italia (in Italian). Milan: Edagricole. ISBN9788850652594. p. 362–63.
^Breed data sheet: Girgentana / Italy. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed May 2014.
^Arturo Magliano (1930). La capra girgentana. L'Italia agricola67: 481–498.
^Johann Wolfgang Amschler (1930). Über Capra aegagrus und Capra falconeri als Hausziegen im Kaukasus (in German). Archiv für Tierernährung und Tierzucht. 3: 307–338.
^Le razze ovine e caprine in Italia (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia: Ufficio centrale libri genealogici e registri anagrafici razze ovine e caprine. p. 19. Accessed May 2014.
These are the principal goatbreeds considered in Italy to be wholly or partly of Italian origin; inclusion here does not necessarily imply that a breed is predominantly or exclusively Italian.
