CHARACTERIZATION OF MORPHOLOGICAL TRAITS IN ALGERIAN INDIGENOUS GOATS BY MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Goat farming is an important economical resource in rural and harsh areas worldwide. In Algeria, a population of more than 5 million of goats is present but until recent years, genetic characterization of different indigenous breeds was not performed. A description of morpho biometric traits has been performed to establish characteristics distinguishing 4 different goats breed: Naine de Kabylie, Arbia, Mekatia and M’zabite bred in 4 different environments in north-central Algeria. A total of 416 goats, aged up to twelve months old, belonging to the four indigenous breeds were used for the analysis. Multivariate analysis was performed considering the following 5 quantitative traits: height at wither (HW), thoracic circumference (TC), ears length (EL), horns length (HoL) and hair length (HaL). In addition, 7 qualitative traits were used: the coat colour (black and white, black, white, brown, brown and white), type of hair (three levels: short, mid-long and long), type of ears (three levels: drooping, pedunculated and dressed), type of chamfer (two levels: curved or straight), incidence of horns (Ho, presence/absence), incidence of beard (Br, presence/absence) and incidence of wattles (W, presence/absence). Least square means of the morphometric measurements traits for sex were generally significant (p < 0.01). Component analysis and common factor analysis were used to analyse interrelationships among variables. Phenotypic frequencies of the qualitative traits were calculated. To analyse the pattern of relationships among the qualitative variables a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was performed. The first component accounts for the 61% of the variance and is associated with measures of height (HW) and length (TC, EL, HoL). The second component is associated with HaL with a correlation of 97%. The considered breeds were not perfectly clustered as some qualitative traits were in common between breeds.