Abstract
The study was conducted to evaluate the principal component analysis of phenotypic attributes of West African Dwarf (WAD) goat. Data collected on the live body weight and twelve morphometric traits of the goats which were categorised into four age groups based on their dentition. The age groups were: less than 2years old, 2- 3years old, 3-4 years old and 4 years old. The data were subjected to a PCA and Cluster analyses using the multivariate procedure components of SAS (2003). Result revealed that highest values of morphometric traits were obtained in goats that of 4 years old. The rate of increase in body weight and other morphometric traits was high in age group of ˂2 years to age 2-3years compared to differences observed in others across the age group. Heart Girth had the highest correlation with body weight. Foreleg, neck, ear and hind leg lengths; wither height and rump height were weakly correlated with the body weight of the goats. Result revealed that two Principal components were retained in the first age group (age group˂2years) which accounted for 72.99% of the total variation. The first PC alone accounted for 63.13% of the total variation while PC2 accounted for the remaining 9.86%. From this study, it was concluded that there is interdependence among body weight and morphometric traits and that morphometric traits can be used in predicting live weight of WAD goats; PCA and Cluster could be exploited in breeding and selection programmes to acquire highly coordinated animal bodies using fewer measurements.
Highlights
Goats play a significant role in the economy and nutrition of landless, small and marginal farmers in most developing countries (Khan et al, 2006)
The three most important goat breeds traditionally recognized in Nigeria are the Red Sokoto (RS), the West African Dwarf (WAD) goats and the Sudan Sahel (Ebozoje and Ikeobi, 1998).The RS goats are well known for their usefulness in the tanning industries while the WAD goats are known for their tolerance to trypanosomiasis
Relative low variability was obtained; the highest CV was obtained in body weight and the lowest was obtained in fore-leg length
Summary
Goats play a significant role in the economy and nutrition of landless, small and marginal farmers in most developing countries (Khan et al, 2006) In ranking, they are next to cattle in income generation and their meat is quite popular, well accepted and relished (Ladele et al, 1996). The three most important goat breeds traditionally recognized in Nigeria are the Red Sokoto (RS), the West African Dwarf (WAD) goats and the Sudan Sahel (Ebozoje and Ikeobi, 1998).The RS goats are well known for their usefulness in the tanning industries while the WAD goats are known for their tolerance to trypanosomiasis. Morphometric measurements have been used to evaluate the characteristics of various breeds of animals by several researchers, and could provide first-hand information on the suitability of animals for selection (Ogah, 2011; Oseni and Ajayi, 2010). Analysis of variance and correlations are widely used to characterize phenotypic and genetic relationships among body measurements of animals (Dietl, et al, 2005)
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