MORPHORMETRIC DIFFERENTIATION OF YANKASA SHEEP IN MAIDUGURI, NORTH-EASTERN NIGERIA
Abbaya, H Y. and Dauda, A
Date : 2018-10-29 Volume : 10

A total of 227 (110 males and 177 females) Yankasa sheep were used for morphometric differentiation of Yankasa sheep in Maiduguri, North-eastern Nigeria to evaluate the effect of age, sex as well as the correlation between morphological traits in Yankasa sheep. Some of morphological traits measured were body weight (BW), body length (BL), height at wither (HW), head length (HDL), head wide (HDW), foreleg (FLG), hind leg (HLG), height at rump (HTR) and neck length (NL). The result of the effect of age showed that BL, HW, TL RL and RW are significantly (P<0.05) different with older animals having superiority over the younger ones. Increase in age lead to increase in morphometric characteristics. Sex had significant (p<0.05) effect on FLG, EL and HDL with males having significantly higher values than females. Coefficient of Variation (CV) ranged from 7.30 – 45.56. The highest CV was recorded in HNL and the least CV was recorded in CC. The phenotypic correlation of morphometric characteristics of Yankasa sheep in this study varied in magnitude and direction. The phenotypic correlation of BW the showed high and positive (p<0.01) correlation with all the phenotypic traits except NL (r= -0.39) and EL (0.15). BW showed positive correlation with all the morphometric traits except HDL. The positive correlation of BW with other traits showed that they are controlled by same gene. 1533198306.php