Breed Differences in Body Weight, Body and Testicular Measurements and Their Relationship in Red Sokoto and Sahel Goats at Weaning

Abstract

One hundred and seven (107) individual records of Red Sokoto (RS) and Sahel (S) kids at weaning were used to compare body weight (BWT), body measurements (BM) and testicular measurements ™ of the two breeds. Efforts were also made to relate BWT with BM and TM in order to identify those that best predict BWT. The BM considered were body length (BLT), heart girth (HGT) and height at withers (HWT). The TM were testicular length (TL), testicular width TW) and scrotal circumference (SC). Breed differences for BWT and BM were not significant (p>0.05). Phenotypic correlations between BWT and BM/TM were significantly (p<0.001) high and positive. Among the TM, SC and TW had the highest correlations with BWT in S (69.80%) and RS (74.40%), respectively. However, among the BM, HGT had the highest correlation in both breeds (S, 96.50%; RS, 76.40%). The measurements (TM/BM) with the highest correlations also had the highest coefficients of
determinations in both breeds. This study established the similarity in BM and TM of S and RS breeds of goat at weaning. At weaning age, while SC best predicts BWT in S, TW best predicts BWT in RS. However, HGT gave the best prediction of BWT in both breeds.

Keywords: Body weight, measurements, testicular, breed, goats

Sahel Journal of Veterinary Science Vol. 6 (1) 2007: pp. 13-17