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Feed resources for small ruminants in Libya: A review

R. M. Al-Mabruk¹ and A. R. Alimon²*

¹Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tripoli, Libya.
²Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia Serdang 43400 Selangor Malaysia

Malaysian J. Anim. Sci. 2015 18(1): 1-21

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The livestock sector in Libya, in particular the small ruminants, plays an important role in the social economy of rural areas. Sheep and goats are primarily raised in traditional systems contributing to the production of meat, milk, wool and skin. Local goats and Barbary sheep use feed efficiently and provide good quality meat. In harsh climatic regions, local plants, bushes or agro-industrial by- products are used as feeds, sometimes mixed with concentrate. However, the main and the major natural resource supporting the livestock production in Libya is the rangeland. In Libya most of the common feed ingredients are imported including a large proportion of forage which are necessary as feed for ruminant animals. Therefore, alternative sources of feeds produced locally have been investigated together with current research efforts to improve the dry matter intake and the average daily gain. The strategies for feeding livestock in Libya are always to concentrate on available feedstuffs, and how they can be used intensively and efficiently. Research and development of technologies have been adapted to improve feed quality for animal feeding for different categories of production systems. Some selected studies are reported in this review. Almost all the research reported in in this literature are studies based on the locally available feed resources