The Saltasassi is an Italian breed of upland sheep, reared for meat. It originates in the provinces of Verbano Cusio Ossola and Novara in the northern part of Piemonte, in north-west Italy. It is one of the forty-two autochthonous local sheep breeds of limited distribution for which a herd-book is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders.
The population in 1983 was estimated at . In 2013 the total number for the breed was not recorded; in 2012 it was 37. A study conducted by the region of Piemonte in the year 2000 found the Saltasassi to be virtually extinct. At the end of 2020 the population numbered six head – five ewes and a ram; in 2025 the conservation status of the breed was listed in DAD-IS as "at risk/critical".
References Le razze ovine e caprine in Italia (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia: Ufficio centrale libri genealogici e registri anagrafici razze ovine e caprine. Archived 21 September 2013.
Consistenze Provinciali della Razza G0 SALTASASSI Anno 2012 (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia: Banca dati. Archived 27 September 2013.
Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to: The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. . Archived 23 June 2020.
Daniele Bigi, Alessio Zanon (2008). Atlante delle razze autoctone: Bovini, equini, ovicaprini, suini allevati in Italia (in Italian). Milan: Edagricole. .
Breed data sheet: Saltasassi / Italy (Sheep). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed August 2025.