The Alfort Veterinary School and Merino sheep

by Bernard Denis, Professeur honoraire de l’Ecole vétérinaire de Nantes, Président de la Société d’Ethnozootechnie, Adel. denis.brj@wanadoo.fr

This article is dedicated to the research work carried out on Merino sheep at the Alfort Veterinary School. These studies aimed at acclimatising this breed in France, crossing it with local breeds and later on improving it for meat production. They succeeded in creating a new breed, the ‘Ile de France’, which was initially known as the ‘Alfort breed’. At the time where wool sheep breeds were crucial for the French economy, the cities of Alfort and Rambouillet developed close links and were the Mecca for animal science in France.

Bull.Soc.Hist.Méd.Sci.Vét., 2007, 7 : 94-103