Leccese

{{Short description|Breed of sheep}}

{{About|the Italian domestic sheep of Salento, Italy|other uses|Leccese (disambiguation)}}

{{use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}

{{use list-defined references|date=January 2014}}

{{Use British English|date=January 2014}}

{{Infobox sheep breed

| name = Leccese

| image =

| image_alt =

| image_size =

| image_caption =

| status = {{nobreak|FAO (2007): not at risk{{r|barb|page=68}}}}

| altname = Moscia Leccese

| country = Italy

| distribution = Salento peninsula

| use = Triple-purpose, primarily for milk

| maleweight = 59 kg

| femaleweight = 45 kg

| maleheight = 73 cm

| femaleheight = 66 cm

| woolcolor = White, occasionally black

| facecolor = Black

| note =

}}

The Leccese or Moscia Leccese is a breed of domestic sheep indigenous to the Salento peninsula, in Puglia, southern Italy.{{r|dad|bigi}} Its name derives from that of Lecce, the principal city of the peninsula. Like the Pinzirita and the Altamurana, it belongs to the Zackel sheep group. It is a hardy and frugal breed, usually kept in semi-feral herds, capable of surviving year-round on pasture alone. The wool is normally white and the skin flesh-coloured with darker mottlings. In a small proportion of animals the wool is entirely black, and the skin is also black; these black-skinned sheep are resistant to the effects of the poisonous Hypericum crispum, common in the Salento, which in the white-woolled, pale-skinned sheep causes photosensitivity and thus dermatitis.{{r|bigi}}

The Leccese is one of the seventeen autochthonous Italian sheep breeds for which a genealogical herdbook is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders.{{r|aspa}} The herd-book was established in 1972.{{r|dad}} Total numbers for the breed were estimated at 240,000 in 1983;{{r|bigi|dad}} in 2013 the number recorded in the herd-book was 574.{{r|aspa2}}

The milk yield of the Leccese averages {{nobreak|76 ± 21 litres}} in 180 days for primiparous, and {{nobreak|99 ± 37 L}} for pluriparous, ewes. The milk has 7% fat and 6.5% protein.{{r|aspa}} Lambs are usually slaughtered at about 90 days, when they weigh approximately {{nobreak|23 kg.}} Rams yield about {{nobreak|3.2 kg}} of wool, ewes about {{nobreak|2.1 kg,}} in two shearings; the wool is of ordinary quality, suitable for mattresses.{{r|bigi}}