Reproductive traits among Black, White and Brown West African Dwarf sheep

摘要

Anevaluationofonehundredandeightewesandeighteenramswasmadetodeterminetheeffectofcoatcolouronthereproductiveperformanceofsheep.Matingwascarriedoutforthreeconsecutivelambingsandreproductivetraitsof36ewesineachcoatcolourgroup(black,whiteandbrown)weremonitored.Traitsmeasuredwerelambinginterval,prolificacy,fecundity,litterweights,littersizeatweaningandpre-weaningmortality.DatawereanalyzedusingGeneralLinearModelprocedureofSAS(2007).Blackeweshadtheshortestlambingintervalof7.61monthsfollowedbybrowneweswith7.99monthswhilethewhiteeweshadthelongestlambingintervalof8.25months.Prolificacyofthedifferentcoatcolourtypesrangedbetween1.58and1.18;blackcoatcoloureweshadthehighestprolificacy.Theblackewealsohadthegreatestfecundity(2.50).Brownewesproducedtheheaviestlitters(3.43kg).However,therewasnosignificantdifferenceinthelitterweightoflambsproducedbyblackewes(2.82kg)andthatproducedbywhiteewes(2.77kg).Blackeweshadthelargestlittersize(1.31)atweaningfollowedbybrownewes(1.15).Whiteeweshadtheleastnumberoflittersatweaning(1.03).Parityoftheewesaswellasseasonoflambingalsohadsignificanteffectonsomeofthetraitsmeasured.Blackewesweresuperiortoothercoatcolourtypeswithregardstothereproductivetraits.