Morphometric and Physical Characterization of Borana Indigenous Goats in Southern Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted in Borana zone of southern Ethiopia to phenotypically characterize Borana goats kept under pastoral and agro-pastoral management systems. In total, 257 of goats comprising of 199 female and 58 male goats were used for the study. Qualitative descriptions of the breed showed that sampled animals displayed high frequency for plain coat pattern (82.10%) and white coat color (89.88%). In both sexes, toggle was manifested in 6% of the animals. Nearly, 48% of the animal sampled (male and female) were polled. The overall body weight (BW), chest girth (CG), body length (BL), wither height (HW), pelvic width (PW), body condition score (BCS) and ear length (EL) for female goats were 27.99 kg, 64.34 cm, 69.60 cm, 66.64 cm, 14.35 cm, 2.87 and 14.35, respectively. Within females, dentition significantly affected (P < 0.001) body weight and all linear measurements (P > 0.05). Similarly, dentition had significantly (P < 0.001) influenced live body weight and other linear measurements in male goats. This study insight that Borana goats are superior to other indigenous goat breeds in many of the quantitative traits considered. Most of the parameters considered had positive and significant correlation with live body weight. Considering ease of measurement, chest girth (CG) could be used in performance recordings and bridge the gaps still present in keeping the performance of the breed to facilitate within breed selection scheme.