Abstract :
A total of 6440 female sheep from Burkina Faso were scored for seven body measurements
and four qualitative morphological traits. Sampling included the three main environmental
areas and sheep breeds of Burkina Faso: the Sahel area (Burkina-Sahel sheep), the Sudan-
Sahel area (Mossi sheep) and the Sudan area (Djallonké sheep). Canonical analyses showed
that differences in body measurements between the Sudan and the Sudan-Sahel sheepwere
small even though most body traits showed higher average values in the Burkina-Sahel
sheep: the shortest Mahalanobis distance was found between the Sudan and the Sudan-
Sahel populations (1.54), whilst that between the Sudan and the Sahelian populations was
the largest (7.88). Discriminant analysis showed that most Sudan (Djallonké) individuals
(60.85%)were classified as Sudan-Sahel (Mossi) individuals whilst most Burkina-Sahel individualswere
classified into their environmental area of sampling (89.46%). Correspondence
analyses indicated that the Burkina-Sahel sheep population clustered together with dropping
ears, black and brown colour patterns and presence of wattles, the Sudan sheep were
closely associated with long hair and vertical and curled ears and that the Sudan-Sahel sheep
did nothave clear associations with qualitative phenotypic traits.At the morphological level,
the Sudan-Sahel (Mossi) sheep population can be considered a geographical subpopulation
belonging to the Djallonké breed, showing some particularities, namely larger body size,
due to the particular environmental condition of the area in which it is managed and a continuous
gene flow from Sahelian sheep, The information reported in this study will be the
basis for the establishment of further characterization, conservation and selection strategies
for Burkina Faso sheep.
