Sheep Production in Europe: State and Perspectives

Sheep production has deep roots, traditionally woven into the style of living of peoples of the Balkan Peninsula, Mediterranean region and British Isles. A prerequisite for that are soil and climatic characteristics and respective forage base. Available grasslands and shrubs in plain and particularly in mountainous regions are forage resources, which are best utilized by sheep and goats. Over a half of the total sheep number and 97% of the goats raised in EU are located in the Mediterranean region. Sheep are considered a means of grass conversion into milk, meat and wool and recently, a means of environment maintenance and biodiversity conservation. The economic changes having occurred after the 1990s in some countries of the Balkan Peninsula became the cause for drastic reduction of sheep number. Nevertheless, the sheep production is considered a possibility and alternative for existence of the local farmers and processing enterprises, satisfying the European market with high-quality lamb meat and sheep”s cheese. ”Sheep production in Europe: State and perspectives” was the theme, which brought together participants from different European countries. The papers of the participants presented the state and trends in development of dairy and mutton sheep production in Bulgaria, Italy, Ireland, France, Spain, Macedonia, Serbia and Greece. We believe that their publishing in the present Proceedings of invited and offered papers of the workshop will contribute to enlarge the knowledge among farmers, researchers, specialists and leaders and to find the truest way of development of the sheep production. I would like to thank the participants and members of the Organizing and Scientific Committees for their help in the organization of the meeting and the publishing of the Proceedings Atanas Kirilov