Diversity of local goats in Kerala, India, based on morpho-biometric traits

摘要

Localgoatpopulationshaveaveryvaluablegeneticpotentialforsustainableagriculture.TheaimofthisstudywastodevelopaprofileofthelocalgoatsinKeralabasedonitsmorpho-biometriccharacteristics.DatawerecollectedfromfourdifferentgeographicallocationsinKerala,viz.Kozhikode,Thrissur,KottayamandTrivandrum.Basedonphysicaltraits,thepopulationswerenotverydistinctandvariationswereseenwithrespecttocoatcolorpattern,presenceorabsenceofhorns,tasselsorbeardandhairpattern.nbsp;Thebiometricaltraitsobservedinthepresentstudywerebodymeasurements,peakyieldandprolificacy.Discriminantanalysisbasedonmorphometricmeasurementsrevealedthatthemostdiscriminativevariableswereheadwidthandbodylength,followedbyshincircumferenceandrumplength.nbsp;Discriminantanalysisbasedonbodyweight,peakyieldandprolificacyrevealedthatonlybodyweightandpeakyieldvariableshavesignificantdiscriminativecapacity.Thedistancevalue(D2)calculatedbetweenpopulationsrevealedthatthegoatpopulationofThrissurdistrictwasmoredistantfromallotherpopulations.nbsp;ClusteranalysisusingtheabovethreevariablesindicatedthatthegoatpopulationsofTrivandrum,KottayamandKozhikodeformedonecluster.