Morphological characterization of Amiata donkey through Multivariate analyses

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the morphology and biometrics of female Amiata donkeys reared in four different areas of southern Tuscany, Italy, to determine the differentiation degree of animals. Four southern Tuscan areas were investigated: two mountainous zones (East and West Amiata) and two flatter areas (Coastal area and Siena surrounding). Morphology and biometrics of adult female Amiata donkeys were collected to determine the homogeneity of the population. Primitive coat markings typical of the breed (shoulder and leg stripes) were found in Amiata donkey. Jennets from Siena surrounding were more dolichomorphic, while West Amiata individuals were smaller. The Principal Component Analysis and the Discriminant Analysis separated the Siena surrounding jennets from the other populations. This result was confirmed through the heatmap representation. The biometrics found in this research confirm that Amiata donkey is a small-medium sized breed suitable for different purposes.

Banat donkey, a neglected donkey breed from the central Balkans (Serbia)

“…Thus, we support the previous findings of Stanisic et al (2017) that the Banat donkey differs genetically from the Balkan donkey, and that it may be acknowledged as a distinct donkey breed in Serbia, the Balkans and worldwide (Alderson, 2003). A group of seven Banat donkey females represents a good core population which can be enlarged by introduction of unrelated individuals, both females and males, required for maintaining high levels of genetic diversity donkey, the Amiata donkey (Sargentini et al, 2009;Sargentini et al, 2018) and the Somali wild donkeys (Groves, 1986;Moehlman, 2002) may imply their common origin.…”

“…We also found that the classification accuracy in the Stepwise Forward Discriminant Analysis obtained with the model that included all studied morphological traits may also be achieved by applying the model that includes only four traits: hip height, croup width, body length and chest depth. These results highlight the redundancy of the majority of morphological traits used in our study, which are, more or less, similar to those commonly used for morphological characterization of donkey breeds (e.g., Folch & Jordana, 1997;Sargentini et al, 2009;Sargentini et al, 2018;Kefena et al, 2011;Kosuková et al, 2015;Labbaci et al, 2018;Ayad et al, 2019). Nonetheless, an important finding is that hip height/chest depth, croup width and body length are weakly correlated because these parameters (or parameters with which they are highly correlated) belong to different PCA-groups (Table S1).…”

“…Their chest circumference is >20 cm wider, and their hips and withers are 8-15 cm higher than those measured in other studied groups. Body measurements of a single studied 8-years old Banat donkey male (Table 1) generally correspond to those recorded for younger females (average age 5.25 years), with a somewhat larger difference observed in body length, carpal circumference, chest depth, hip height and tibia circumference, which are the most common morphological traits used for donkey breed characterization (e.g., Folch & Jordana, 1997;Sargentini et al, 2009;Sargentini et al, 2018;Kefena et al, 2011;Kosuková et al, 2015;Labbaci et al, 2018;Ayad et al, 2019). This would indicate a possible sexual dimorphism in the Banat donkey which is indeed present in certain donkey breeds (e.g., Catalonian donkey from Spain, Folch & Jordana, 1997).…”

“…A unique morphological feature of the Banat donkey, black stripes on legs resembling those typical for Somali wild donkeys (Groves, 1986;Moehlman, 2002) present today in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea (Moehlman, 2002), may represent a relict and primitive marking (Johnson & Johnson, 2008) indicative of their origin. According to Sargentini et al (2018), black stripes on legs and some other body markings characterize also the Italian Amiata donkey breed and their ancestors.…”

“…The Banat donkey differs morphologically from the Balkan donkey not only by its larger body, but also by different coat colour and unique pigmentation scheme, with a cross on the back and black stripes on legs resembling those typical for Somali wild donkeys (Groves, 1986;Moehlman, 2002) present today in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea (Moehlman, 2002). Such pigmentation represents primitive markings of the species (Johnson & Johnson, 2008) typical also for the Italian Amiata donkey (Sargentini et al, 2009;Sargentini et al, 2018). According to Stanisic et al (2017), the Banat donkey is also characterized by a unique nuclear gene pool, as inferred from the analysis with 11 nuclear microsatellites in both Banat and Balkan donkeys, and furthermore, it predominantly harbours Clade 2 mtDNA haplotypes that are nowadays less abundant in Ethiopian donkeys (Kefena et al, 2014), and more common in those from south-west Asia and Europe, including several Spanish (Aranguren-Mendez et al, 2004) and Italian donkey breeds (Cozzi et al, 2017).…”