Body measurements and morphological indexes of a cattle population in the Adamawa region (Cameroon)

Abstract

Growing population and urbanisation in Central and West Africa lead to an increasing demand for meat and milk products. The improvement of cattle production might cover these needs for human consumption (de Haan, 2001). Mass selection is the first step to develop animal production, where genealogical information might not be available, above all to improve meat production. Body measurements at the end of growth, may be useful as selection criteria (Maiwashe et al., 2002) for performance traits, which have medium and high heritability (Gilbert et al., 1993)....