Influence of age, body weight, parity and morphometric traits on litter size in prolific Black Bengal goats

Abstract

Data on some linear traits along with age, body weight (BW) at breeding, parity and previous litter size (LZ) of 1008 pregnant Black Bengal goats were analysed using one-way Analysis of Variance. Higher age, heavier BW at breeding, higher parity order resulted more (P < 0.01) chance of triplet or quadruplet births as compared to that of single birth. Larger previous LZ resulted larger (P < 0.01) LZ in subsequent kidding. Most of the linear traits were higher (P < 0.01 or P < 0.05) in goats bearing multiple foetuses than in the goats bearing single foetus. The results of stepwise discriminant function suggested that heart girth, punch girth, BW, distance between trochanter major and pelvic triangle area might be the predictive indices for higher LZ.