Abstract
Tanzania has a goat population of about 24.8 million most of which belong to the Small East African breed distributed in almost all agro-ecological zones. The different goat populations and the production system in which they are raised are not well characterized depriving animal breeders useful information in designing and running improvement and conservation programs. Therefore, the study was conducted in all agro-ecological zones in Tanzania to characterize the indigenous goats and the production system in which they are raised. Data on animals were collected from 688 randomly selected adult female goats and for production system description; 220 households were interviewed. Analysis of variance and discriminant analysis were used on quantitative data, while frequency analysis was used on qualitative data. Income generation and meat production were the primary goat rearing objectives. More than 55% of respondents grazed their animals freely in communal lands where natural pasture was the chief feed resource. Mating was mainly uncontrolled with apron and castration being used by goat keepers as mating control methods. Common diseases were contagious caprine pleural pneumonia and helminthiasis. Feed shortage, prevalence of diseases, and water scarcity were the major goat production constraints. There were morphological variations between and within these goat populations, and based on quantitative data, the goats were categorized into two groups. High twinning was observed in Ujiji and Lindi goats and low for Sukuma. The dominant coat color was plain white in Pare, Gogo, Maasai, and Tanga. Other coat color patterns were mixed black and white for Sukuma, reddish-brown for Lindi, black and reddish-brown for Ujiji, and white and reddish-brown for Pwani and Maasai. High within population variation is observed which is important as it can be used as a basis for genetic improvement through selection.
Highlights
Tanzania has a goat population of 24.8 million (NBS 2020) most of which belong to the Small East African (SEA) breed distributed in almost all agro-ecological zones
The third approach was the development of the synthetic breed in which a three-way dual-purpose goat breed, known as “Blended” goat was developed from the crossing of SEA, Boer, and Kamorai goats (Das and Sendalo 1991)
A sizable proportion of farmers housed their goats with other livestock species, Table 2 Percentages of respondents for different purposes of goat keeping in Tanzania
Summary
Tanzania has a goat population of 24.8 million (NBS 2020) most of which belong to the Small East African (SEA) breed distributed in almost all agro-ecological zones. Dairy goat breeds such as Saanen, Alpine, Anglo-Nubian, and Toggenburg were introduced in the country in the early 1960s (Das and Sendalo 1991) and were used mainly in high potential highland areas where the environment was conducive for them to survive and produce Another approach involved crossbreeding of the SEA does with exotic bucks for meat production, whereby Boer bucks were introduced and crossed with indigenous does to produce F1 crossbreds that grew faster and had higher mature weight than the pure local ones. The three approaches have not been successful due to lack of adaptability and resistance to various diseases and parasites of the pure exotic and their crossbreds and high cost involved in maintaining them which is not affordable to smallholder farmers
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
