Phenotypic characterization of Ethiopian indigenous goat populations

Abstract

A survey was conducted to study the morphological characteristics of indigenous goats in representative zones and districts of Amhara Region of Ethiopia as a first step towards characterization and designing of breeding programs. A pre-tested questionnaire was used for recording morphological features, body weights and linear body measurements. Both qualitative and quantitative traits were recorded on 158 goats randomly sampled from six goat populations and the data were analyzed using GenStat version 13 software. Live body weights were also associated and predicted using linear body measurements. Results confirmed that six distinct indigenous goat populations were identified and characterized in the region viz. Gumuz, Begia-Medir, Agew, Bati, Central Abergelle and Abergelle. There were clear morphological variations between and within these goat ecotypes in terms of body coat color, head profile, horn orientation, ear form and head shape. The Ethiopian goat ecotypes found in Amhara Region of Ethiopia could be clustered into two main groups viz. Gumuz, Agew and Begia-Medir cluster as one group and Bati, Abergelle and Central Abergelle as the second group. The high variations observed in the morphological traits suggest that these goat ecotypes have not yet been selected through structured selective breeding. The high correlation coefficients of heart girth with body weight for west (r = 0.899) and east (r = 0.832) Amhara Region goat populations demonstrated a strong relationship between these variables with regression equations of y = 1.273x -61.329, R² = 0.807 and y = 0.486 x -5.798, R² = 0.095, respectively, which allows for predicting live weight from heart girth in these goats. In general, the observed morphological characteristics of the goats' genetic resources in Amhara region together with the characterization at molecular level will contribute to designing of improvement strategies for these goat populations, which will need to be complemented with performance data.

Genetic Diversity of Three Native Goat Populations Raised in the South-Eastern Region of Turkey

“…, TadlaouiOuafai et al 62 , and lower than that reported by Oliviera et al 42 , Hassen et al 47 , Li et al 48 , Gour et al 51 , Dixit et al 63 and Kumar et al 64 . Luikart et al 1 and Naderi et al 3 have stated that a lower F ST value generally observed in goat populations results from a higher mobility of goats between different regions, which reduces a genetic differentiation between populations.…”

“…, Hassen et al 47 and Li et al 48 . The mean number of alleles/locus/breed found in this study (between 10.33 and 11.33) were similar to those found by Bozkaya et al 49 , Korkmaz-Ağaoğlu and Ertuğrul 50 and higher than those reported by Behl et al 35 , Saitbekova et al 38 , Agha et al 39 , Barker et al 45 , Li et al 48 , Gour et al 51 , Jandurova et al…”

Relationship and Prediction of Body Weight from Morphometric Traits in Maefur Goat Population in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

“…Heart girth explains about 80.4 to 93.6 % total variation in live body weight in Indian goat breed of Kanni Adu kids under farmer's management system. Live body weight is significantly correlated to heart girth (r=0.899) and to body length (r=0.729) for Gumuz, Begia-Medir and Agew goat ecotypes of the Amhara region of Ethiopia [11]. More recent finding for Abergelle goat breed emphasized that body weight has relatively high relationship with heart girth (0.73-0.89) as compared with the other body measurements, body length (0.46-0.82) and height at wither (0.53-0.83) [8].…”

Early growth trend and performance of three Ethiopian goat ecotypes under smallholder management systems

“…Currently, there are different research works done on indigenous goats which can contribute for designing of improvement programs. Most of the researches done were focused on issues like characterization of production systems [4], physical description [5], molecular genetic characterization [6] and health [7] of different breeds. But studies on the growth performance of kids particularly for Bati, Borana and Short-eared Somali goat populations are scarce and poorly documented.…”