This study investigated the possibility of using morphometric measurements to differentiate the autochthonous Serbian White goat breed from Saanen and Balkan goats, which were used as sire and dam breeds in its creation. For this purpose, a multivariate discriminant analysis was used. A total of 11 morphometric traits were measured in 98 does of 3 breeds: Saanen (n = 28), Balkan (n = 28), and Serbian White (n = 42), aged 2 to 7 years, in 4 different locations. Univariate analysis of variance revealed a significant difference in body measurements of all three breeds, with Saanen goat being the largest in format and Balkan the smallest. Discriminant analysis extracted six out of eleven tested morphometric traits with the strongest discriminatory power: heart girth, head length, chest depth, head width, pelvic width, and body length. Mahalanobis distances were significant between all three genetic groups. The discriminant function correctly classified 95.24% of the Domestic White goats investigated to their source group. The classification accuracy of the function was cross-validated and indicated an overall success rate of 91.84%. The results of this research showed that there was a clear separation between Serbian White, Saanen, and Balkan goats. The present findings could help a more rapid field assessment of Serbian White goats.

Meat colour was evaluated in 36 goat kids of both genders equally from three breeds: Alpine, Balkan and Serbian white breed. Animals were slaughtered at 18 kg of body weight and three muscles were analysed for colour characteristics and pH value: m. longissimus lumborum, m. psoas major (tenderloin) and m. semimembranosus. pH values differ significantly only for m. longissimus lumborum muscle, whereas Balkan kids had a significantly higher pH value than Alpine and Serbian white (p<0.001). The goat breed significantly affected meat CIEL*a*b* values for all muscles analysed. Lightness (L*) was generally the highest for Balkan and lowest for the Alpine breed. The differences in redness (a*) and Chroma values (C*) were not significant, while the yellowness only differed for m. longissimus lumborum muscle, whereas Serbian white kids had higher b* values compared to Alpine kids. As a colour saturation characteristic, the hue angle was higher in meat from indigenous breeds (Balkan and Serbian white) than in the Alpine breed.