Preface

Sheep were domesticated by humans many years ago and throughout their history have been used to supply meat, milk, wool, and skin to different populations worldwide depending on geographical location, breed type, and dietary needs. This book provides insight into how sheep production is currently approached around the world.

Dr. Manuel González Ronquillo and Dr. Carlos Palacios Riocerezo have extensive experience in research and the development of scientific knowledge for farmers in two very different areas of the world. Jointly, they have produced a work that brings together very different geographical situations, management practices, and production systems, from the herds in the southernmost part of South America to the region of Magallanes, describing the herds' husbandry and management systems. This book describes sheep husbandry and management throughout the year, the nomadic and semi-nomadic shepherds of southern Poland, indigenous and minority breeds such as the Odisha in India, difficulties of applying reproductive technology in the northern Maghreb in Africa, the social and environmental structure of the dairy flocks of Castilla and León in Spain, and analyzes wool production in sheep in Mexico and North America. The book reviews the current situation of diverse sheep production worldwide and considers its future in a totally globalized world, with serious environmental problems and in which the rural world, linked to sheep farming, is experiencing one of its greatest crises. One chapter analyzes the role of cryptosporidiosis in sheep welfare and economic loss and provides information on how to minimize and deal with the infection. This book appears at a key moment in the relationship between sheep and humans, providing keys to provide sustainability, adapting to modern knowledge, and gathering ancestral, sustainable, and opportune practices to provide hope for livestock farmers in the poorest areas of the planet.

> **Manuel Gonzalez Ronquillo** Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico, Toluca, Mexico

> > **Carlos Palacios Riocerezo** Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Castilla and Leon, Spain

Section 1
