Morphometric Characterization of Different Strains of Osmanabadi Goat at 0-3 & 4-6 Months of Age

Abstract

India possess 135.1 million goats which comes to about 14.66 percent of world population. The body measurements indicate the skeletal growth of the animals. The  present  study  was  undertaken  on  Osmanabadi  goat  in  the  breeding  tract  i.e.  Nanded, Latur, Osmanabad, Beed and Parbhani districts of Marathwada region in Maharashtra state. The present work were carried out on the body weight and measurements of 124 Osmanabadi goats at  0-3 and 217  Osmanabadi  goats  at 4-6 months  of  age  for  different  sex  (male  and female),  type  of  birth  (single,  twin,  triplet  or  quadriplet),  breed  strains  (Entire  black  & horned,  Entire  black  &  polled,  Entire  black,  horned  & spotted  ear,  Entire  black,  polled  & spotted ear and Tan coloured), at different locations in the breeding tract and horned/ polled condition. The overall least square means of body weight, body length, chest girth, paunch girth, height at wither for the Osmanabadi kids at 0 to 3 months of age were recorded as 3.75 ± 0.11 kg, 27.42 ± 0.29 cm, 30.69±0.41, 34.27 ± 0.47 cm, 36.45 ± 0.39 cm and 4 to 6 months 9.29 ± 0.16 kg, 41.60 ± 0.30 cm, 41.60 ± 0.30 cm, 47.62 ± 0.38 cm, 50.60 ± 0.34 cm. The non-significant effect of different sources on the body weight and significant to highly significant effect of sex and districts on the different body measurements may lead to the concrete conclusion that these factors play a major role in exhibiting the specific body measurements.