Sanga

The branch sanga is a bovine branch African. It gathers many races of close origin. Sanga is an Ethiopian word meaning " taureau".

Origin

It is about a branch originating in north in Africa and that one hardly finds today than in the east and the sud.
Diverses theories try to transcribe its history:

old Creation (3 to 4000 years) by crossing between populations autochtones of East Africa: zebus, cattle with long horns and short horns. (Payne and Wilson, 1999 and Henri Lhote, the Extraordinary adventure of Peuls )
Migration in all Saharan Africa at the first millenium before JC of a zebu come from Egypt. (theory based on research archaeological: Muzzolini, 2000) This zebu, would slowly have diffused its genes with the wire of the crossings, giving with the cattle to long indigenous horns the Sanga branch.
later Crossing of African bovines autochtones and Zebu S indo - Pakistani brought in the horn of Africa by the Arab . (Ethiopia, Somalia) This thesis is supported by research on the molecular genetics; (Hanotte and others, 2002) it shows a fast diffusion of genes of zebus in the populations autochtones.

From there, the history is less prone to interpretation. This domesticated branch of bovine is so much well adapted to the African biotopes of type Savane which it gradually was high in all the areas where it appears, of the Sudan to the South Africa.

In 1887, of the Italian monks ontroduisent Italian cattle in Erythrée with an aim of improving the local bétal with more productive Italian races. With them, they introduce the cattle plague. This serious epidemic decimates the livestock in all central Africa. A repopulation with Zébu S of the Indian peninsula deeply will modify the local cattle, so much so that one speaks there today about the branch Zenga, contraction of zebu and sanga .

Today

Currently, one finds the races of the Sanga branch essential in Southern Africa and be-Saharan, in areas where the cattle was saved by the epidemic of plague. In Southern Africa, the threat has a time taken another form, the interbreeding. Indeed, the British introduced very early their cattle in order to reproduce the European lifestyle there. The afrikaners, immigrant Dutch, politically separate from their fatherland of origin, benefitted more from the resources of local agriculture. It is them which have the first selected the bovine species autochtones with an aim of improving the productivity of it.

Today, these races are the subject of programs:

of selection to improve the intrinsic productivity of these races.
of crossing with the European races to create very productive F1 individuals.
of safeguarding for the most threatened.

Morphology

These races have jointly a great capacity to support the roughness of the dry tropical climate. They have a bump on the garrot making it possible to store grease, usable to support the periods of " cows maigres". They have also a digestive system ready to use all the plants present in these areas. Where European cattle loses, these races thrive. Their shoes and their legs are cut for walk towards pastures and points of water. They do not need to drink the every day.

Related races

Races of Southern Africa

In South Africa: afrikaner, Bonsmara, Drakensberg, Nguni, Sanganer, touli
In the countries bordering: Barotse, Tswana…

Races the top the Nile

Races of East Africa

Notes and references of the article

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