The Marrana or Marrane is a

breed A breed is a specific group of breedable domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist seve ...

of large

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

from the area of

Rezzoaglio Rezzoaglio (, locally ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the Italian region Liguria. Rezzoaglio borders the following municipalities: Borzonasca, Favale di Malvaro, Ferriere, Fontanigorda, Lorsica, Mon ...

, in the

Val d'Aveto The Val d'Aveto, or Aveto valley, straddles the Province of Genoa and the Province of Piacenza, between the Italian regions of Liguria and Emilia-Romagna. The river Aveto runs through the valley, to later join its waters with those of the Trebbia ne ...

in the

province of Genova The province of Genoa () was a province in the Liguria region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Genoa. It was replaced by Metropolitan City of Genoa. Overview It has an area of and a total population of about 0.9 million (2009). There are ...

, in

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

in north-west Italy. It was formerly a small breed, with an average weight of about 50 kg; the handful of surviving members of the breed are larger, and show strong morphological similarity to the Bergamasca and the

Biellese The Biellese is a breed of large domestic sheep indigenous to the province of Biella, in Piedmont in north-western Italy, from which it takes its name. It may also be known as the Razza d'Ivrea, after the town of Ivrea, or as the Piemontese A ...

, to such an extent that the integrity of the breed has been questioned. The Marrana is one of the forty-two autochthonous local sheep breeds of limited distribution for which a herdbook is kept by the

Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia The Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, or roughly "national association of Sheep farming, pastoralists", is the Italian national body responsible for the administration of sheep- and goat-breeding. It maintains the herd books for more th ...

, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders. In 2013 total numbers for the breed were not reported. Recent figures for the number of pure-bred specimens are 17, 12 and 7.

References

Sheep breeds originating in Italy {{Sheep-stub