Author/Authors :
Abd-Allah, S. Animal Production Department - National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt , Salman, Fatma M. Animal Production Department - National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt , Shoukry, M.M. Animal Production Department - National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt , Abd- El Rahman, H.H. Animal Production Department - National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt , Mohamed, M.I. Animal Production Department - National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt , Abedo, A.A. Animal Production Department - National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt
Abstract :
This study was conducted to assess the various morphometric traits of Boer goats raised under desert areas
conditions in Egypt. Data were collected from 20 animals of different sex and age groups. Ten standard morphological characteristics such as chest girth (CG), wither height (WH), body length (BL), chest depth (CD), paunch
length (PL), cannon circumference (CC), head length (HEL), paunch girth (PG), paunch height (PH) and neck
circumference (NC) were used to morphologically characterize the Boer goats with a live body weight of 43.30 kg.
The coefficient of variation (CV) in all morphological characteristics ranged from 4.55% to 28.07%, while was lower
in female 7.71 % compared to that of male 13.24 %. The effects of sex on the body measurements were analyzed and
morphologicals harmony were determined through the pearson correlation. Our findings showed that the mean live
body weight (LBW) of the male group was observed as 45.70 kg, while that of the female group was noted as 40.90
kg. Female goats showed numerically higher homogeneity compared to the male in all morphological traits. The body
length (BL) of male recorded in these study were found to be 87.60 cm while that of female was investigated to be
83.10 cm, respectively. Also, the homogeneity between goats aged from 2 to 3 years was greater than that of other age
groups. The highest and strongly positive correlation (p<0.01) was recorded between LBW and NC for male (0.99) and
of PG for female goats (0.978). Neck circumference (NC) alone has explained the variation in LBW with an adjusted
R2
of 0.99 for males. Stepwise regression analysis determined that CG, CD, CC, WH, PG and NC was the major
significant contributors to the LBW prediction equation for Boer goats. LBW of goats can be predicted from NC with
an adjusted R2
of 0.99 for male and PG, CG and CC with adjusted R2
about 100 percent for female. From this data,
it could be concluded that the LBW can be predicted with high accuracy from some body measurements which can
be exploited by goats producers for management, selection and genetic improvement of Boer goats and could be used
successfully in new breeding programs in Egypt.
Keywords :
Boer goats , Body weight , Morphometric measurements , Regression , Egypt
