The Rustica di Calabria or Sciara is an indigenous

breed A breed is a specific group of 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 several slig ...

of domestic goat from

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

in southern Italy. It is raised mostly in the provinces of Catanzaro and

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

. Although present in substantial numbers it has been little studied; its conservation status and origins remain unclear. It may have been influenced by the various goat breeds, including the

Abyssinian goat Abyssinian may refer to: Cultures * Abyssinian people and * Things related to parts of Ethiopia, formerly known as Abyssinia Domestic animal breeds * Abyssinian cat, a cat breed * Abyssinian goat, a goat breed; see Rustica di Calabria * A ...

, the

Maltese Maltese may refer to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta * Maltese alphabet * Maltese cuisine * Maltese culture * Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people * Maltese people, people from Malta or of Malte ...

and a type known as "Tibetan", whose introduction to Calabria in the early twentieth century is documented. The Rustica di Calabria is one of the forty-three autochthonous Italian goat 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 pastoralists", is the Italian national body responsible for the administration of sheep- and goat-breeding. It maintains the herd books for more than a hundred i ...

, the Italian national association of sheep- and goat-breeders. At the end of 2013 the registered population was 24,130, most of which were in the province of Cosenza.

Use

The milk yield of

pluriparous In biology and human medicine, gravidity and parity are the number of times a woman is or has been pregnant (gravidity) and carried the pregnancies to a viable gestational age (parity). These terms are usually coupled, sometimes with additional ...

Rustica di Calabria nannies is 200–250 litres per lactation of 150 days. Kids are slaughtered at a weight of 6–7 kg.

References

Goat breeds Meat goat breeds Dairy goat breeds Goat breeds originating in Italy {{Italy-stub