Morphological traits of venezuelan Creole goat

Abstract

As a contribution to the characterization of Creole breed of goats in Venezuela, a total of 506 measurements of chest width, chest tallness, chest height, withers height, thorax perimeter, scapula-thurl long, body long, hip width, posterior rump width, rump long, and body weight from females older than 15 months of age, randomly selected from commercial flocks (n = 8) representative of typical production systems, with common shepherding, and located in arid environments. Direct fraction of gens from Alpine, Canaria, Creole, and Nubian breeds were of 2±0,3; 0,0±0,1; 95±0,5; and 3±0,4 %, respectively. There were not pure breed individuals, except Creoles. The heterozygosis averaged 0,07±0,01, with a maximum of 0,63. The raw mean and standard deviation for traits mentioned were of 15,7±2,7; 31,0±3,9; 36,4±3,6; 66,3±5,2; 75,2±7,7; 67,7±7,0; 94,2±8,6; 14,1±2,1; 10,0±2,0; 19,8±1,8; and 29,7±8,0; respectively. The single trait analysis, with flock and the co-variables age, lineal and quadratic, and direct fraction of breed as fixed effects, detected differences statistically significant among flocks, with ranges of up to 50%, and also among the regression coefficients on the direct fraction of breed genes. The Creole breed represents from 60 to 72 % of the best among the rest of the evaluated breeds. Traits of the thoracic, rump, and body regions seem equally correlated with within and among regions, with values from 0,18 to 0,63. In all regions there were variables highly correlated with body weight. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors are indicative that five of the main components explain 81 % of the variation. Results are indicative that axial dimensions of the Venezuelan Creole goat are shorter but with higher variation than those of exotic breeds.