Abstract

The current cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2006 to December 2006 to assess the distribution and magnitude of major defects of sheep and goatskins collected and temporarily stored in four purposively selected skin and hide stores of Bahir Dar town, northwest Ethiopia. Thirty percent of raw sheep and goatskins collected by the traders was selected using simple random sampling method for examination of various kinds of skin defects, masses and sizes. Skins were graded according to the standard set by the Ethiopian Quality and Standard Authority. Defects caused by dirt and knife are found to be the most important defects of sheep and goatskins. The proportion of grade 1 skins in case of salted sheepskins was 29.68% while that of fresh sheepskins was 21.60% of the total samples. The proportion of grade 1 in case of fresh and salted goatskins was 23.2 and 29.63%, respectively, among the total goatskin examined. Recommendations were given so that slaughtering of sheep and goats should be done by professionals in order to reduce the defects created during flaying which are found to be among the major defects observed during examination of sheep and goatskins in the current study. In addition appropriate transportation, storage and marketing system should be in place so that the maximum benefit could be achieved from sheep and goat skins.

Keywords:

Goats, grading, sheep, skin defects, stereotyping,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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The authors have no competing interests.