BESIDES that, as a member of the Serbian Army, Sasa Janković (47) from Voljavče near Jagodina decided to protect his homeland, he has been working for years on the protection of domestic poultry breeds.
The only one in Pomoravlje to raise Svrljig chicken, Photo by Z. Gligorijević
He is part of the team of the Association for the Breeding of Small Animals, which is working with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine on standards for these breeds and hopes that next year they will be recognized by the European Association of Small Animal Breeders. Jankovic grows about 200 pieces of poultry. First, ten years ago, he started with the Sombor kaporka, an old breed of chicken that was on the verge of extinction during the Great War. As there are now several thousand of them in the standard variant in Serbia, he cultivates the dwarf variant.
– I have been looking for Svrljig hen for five years, and I have been doing selection and “cleaning” of that breed for three years. I am the only breeder in the Pomoravski district and one of only five in Serbia, so we can exchange them to “refresh the blood”. I have 30 pieces of this old Balkan breed, bred in the area of the Svrljig mountains. The hens are small, they lay about a hundred eggs a year, while the rest of the poultry lay 180 eggs, their meat is tougher. That is why they are not commercial and they were almost exterminated – says Janković and adds that there are several specimens of the Vinča deer breed, which is on the verge of extinction.
Vinča deer, Photo by Z. Gligorijević
The Association for the Protection and Education of Small Animals “Zoo Jagodina”, of which he is the president, decided this year to, in cooperation with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, try to return the Jagodina turkey, which existed before the First World War, and the center for education was precisely Jagodina, whose locals, just after that party, were called “turkeys”.
– I try to find this race, to immerse it and make standards. It is a slightly smaller black-and-white turkey, it reaches a maximum of five or six kilograms, the meat is of poorer quality, so the villagers stopped raising it – says Janković, who raises Banat Golishians from autochthonous poultry breeds, whose number in Serbia has increased to several thousands, thanks to government subsidies and breeders ’efforts.
Exhibits, Photo by Z. Gligorijević
ASSOCIATION
ASSOCIATION for the protection and upbringing of small animals “Zoo Jagodina”, founded seven years ago, has 40 members from the Pomoravski district, but also Belgrade and Velika Plana, who raise poultry, pigeons, rabbits and birds. The association is a member of the Association of Small Animal Breeders “Aos”, which is a member of the European Association of Breeders, so they can also exhibit at international exhibitions.
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