Belay Zeleke et al., ON FARM PHENOTYPIC CHARACTERIZATION OF INDIGENOUS GOAT POPULATIONS IN GAMO GOFA ZONE SOUTH WESTERN ETHIOPIA

Belay Zeleke, Meseretu Melese
2017 July-Sept   unpublished
The study was carried out in three districts of Gamo Gofa zone south Western Ethiopia. The objective of the study was to carry out phenotypic characterization of local goat population in the study area under farmers' management condition. A total of 1125 goats were randomly sampled. Data were gathered through field observations and linear body measurements of sample populations. The Sampled indigenous goats were identified by sex, age and district. The GLM procedure of SAS was employed to
more » ... fy the effect of independent variables. The most dominant coat color pattern was plain. Brown dominant, Fawn and white dominant were the most frequent coat colors in the population. All the quantitative traits were significantly (P< 0.05) affected by sex and location of the animal except tail length and horn length. The average body weight was 26.17+0.33 kg and 28.61+0.23 for male and female goat population. The average chest girth in the current study was 71.09 + 0.38 cm for male and 73.62+0.23 cm for female population. Similarly, overall mean of body length of male and female population were 58.54 + 0.29 cm and 60.65 + 0.22 cm respectively. And height at wither was 64.03 + 0.24 cm and 65.60 + 0.23 cm for male and female. An average body weight of 26.17+0.33 kg and 28.61+0.23 for male and female goat population were observed. The studied population had 16.11+0.09 cm, 11.23 + 0.29 cm, 15.27+0.12 cm of ear length, horn length and tail length for male; and 16.52 + 0.06 cm, 11.30 + 0.20 cm and 15.49 + 0.09 cm for females. Generally the linear body measurement result showed that the studied population was generally better than Woito Guji goat population. Hence categorizing Gamo Gofa goats under Woito Guji goats should be reconsidered. Since two goat populations exist in zone viz: the Gamo highland and the Gamo lowland goats further work is required to quantify the sufficient difference and productive performance of the indigenous breeds through monitoring.
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