Body Weight and Scrotal-Testicular Biometry in Three Indigenous Breeds of Bucks in Arid and Semiarid Agroecologies, Ethiopia

Abstract

The body weight and testicular and epididymal parameters of Afar, Long-eared Somali (LES), and Woyto-Guji (WG) breeds of goat were investigated. A total of 405 randomly selected bucks of Afar (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">135</mml:mn></mml:math>), Long-eared Somali (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">135</mml:mn></mml:math>), and Woyto-Guji (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M3"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">135</mml:mn></mml:math>) were included in this study. The overall mean scrotal circumference (SC), testicular volume (TV), testicular length (TL), testicular weight (TW), body weight (BW), epididymal weight (EW), body condition score, and testicular diameter (TD) measurements in all bucks were<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M4"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">20.8</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">1.94</mml:mn></mml:math> cm,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M5"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">68.1</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">6.18</mml:mn></mml:math>,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M6"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">4.96</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.79</mml:mn></mml:math> cm,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M7"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">70.0</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">5.66</mml:mn></mml:math> g,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M8"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">22.1</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">2.98</mml:mn></mml:math> Kg,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M9"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">9.09</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">1.88</mml:mn></mml:math> g,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M10"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">2.55</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.68</mml:mn></mml:math>, and<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M11"><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">4.28</mml:mn><mml:mo>±</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.45</mml:mn></mml:math> cm, respectively. Significant (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M12"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.05</mml:mn></mml:math>) breed differences in SC, TD, TL, TW, BW, EW, and TV were recorded. Long-eared Somali (LES) breed was heaviest and Afar breed was the lightest and Woyto-Guji (WG) had the average BW. In all breeds, the parameters were positively correlated. In Afar breed, the TW had a significant correlation with BW (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M13"><mml:mi>r</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.90</mml:mn></mml:math>) and SC (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M14"><mml:mi>r</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.65</mml:mn></mml:math>). In LES BW was highly correlated with TD (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M15"><mml:mi>r</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.96</mml:mn></mml:math>) and TL (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M16"><mml:mi>r</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.96</mml:mn></mml:math>). In WG, TW was significantly correlated with TD (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M17"><mml:mi>r</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.94</mml:mn></mml:math>), EW (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M18"><mml:mi>r</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.90</mml:mn></mml:math>), TL (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M19"><mml:mi>r</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.89</mml:mn></mml:math>), and BW (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M20"><mml:mi>r</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">0.82</mml:mn></mml:math>). In multiple regression analysis the linear combinations of BCS, SC, and BW significantly predicted TW, TL, TV, TD, and EW in all breeds. In conclusion, Long-eared Somali breed displayed greater BW and scrotal and testicular traits.