ABSTRACT
Traditionally, animals including goats are visually assessed, but the need for objective measure is pertinent. This study was therefore conducted to qualitatively and morphometrically characterise WAD goats in Edo North of Nigeria.
Data used for this study were obtained through a 4 multi-stage sampling techniques to obtain 158 West African Dwarf (WAD) goats of different ages from the study area. Measurements obtained were Body length (BLT), Heart girth (HGT), Shoulder length (SHL), Foreleg length (FLL), Hindlimb length (HLL), Headlength (HDL), Ear length (ELT), Horn length (HOL), Tail length (TLT), Height at wither (HAW), Distance between ears (DBE) all measured in centimetres(cm) and Live weight (BWT) measured in (KG),with the use of a weighing scale of 50kg capacity. The data for presence of beards, wattle, hair texture, coat colour, and eye colour were visually assessed and recorded. Well procedural measurements for morphometric traits of WAD goats as well as a proper observation of the qualitative characteristics were carried out. Data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis to determine morphometric traits, modelling the growth of goats using different functions and principal component to determine age effect, sex and location on the WAD goats, and also the relationship amongst the morphometric traits. The growth model of WAD goats using different functions was also determined.
The results obtained showed that the most frequent coat colour was brown (64.15%), with more female goats in the Local Government Areas sampled. The common hair texture amongst WAD goats in the three LGA was the smooth type, and the presence of beards and wattle were not commonly observed in the three LGAs. The linear measurements increased with age with body measurements having 5.243±0.550, 15.920±1.615, 16.520±1.281, 18.650±2.07 for ages 1, 2, 3 and 4 years respectively. BWT increased from 5.243±0.550kg, BLT (36.58±1.53 to 52.13±0.85), HGT (39.25±1.29 to 55.66) HAW(32.67±1.02 to 43.63±0.54), HOL (2.47±0.36 to 6.52±0.25) and TLT(7.57±0.25 to 9.53 ±0.22)cm from ages 1 to 4 years respectively. There was significant (P>0.05) relationship between BWT and linear measurements except for the head measurements. In regression analysis, the equation that best described BWT variation was Y= -28.32±0.61HGT – 0.51 HAW + 1.97 HDL -0.20 FLL with R2 of 100 percent. The correlations between some morphomeric traits were observed to be highly significant at different ages across the three LGAs. Using factor analysis, five factors were extracted and accounted for total variance and component 1 had the highest values 69.79%, 57.30%, 37.82%, 59.92% across the four ages respectively. However, it was concluded that the sex, age, and location of WAD goats had significant effects on some of their morphometric characteristics. The results therefore suggest that reduced number of biometric traits can be used in WAD goat characterisation.
