MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF BIOMETERIC TRAITS IN CHOLISTANI CATTLE
W. A. Shah1, N. Ahmad1*, M. Saadullah1, M. E. Babar1, T.N. Pasha2, S. Ahmad2, A. Ali1, Nasrullah3, M. Z. Farooq1 and A. H. Saleem1
Department of Livestock Production, 2Department of Animal Nutrition, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan; 3Department of Livestock Management, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Lasbella University of Agriculture, Water and Marine, Uthal Balochistan, Pakistan
*Corresponding author email: nisarahmad@uvas.edu.pk;
ABSTRACT
Data on 18 biometric traits of lactating Cholistani cows (N=325; age, 4-6 years) were recorded and analyzed through principal component analysis . These animals were maintained at Livestock Experimental Station Jugaitpeer Distric Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan. The average values of these traits indicated that Cholistani cows are of medium type. Factor analysis with promax rotation revealed that head width (HW), face length (FL), eye to eye space (EE) and neck length (NL) were 83.618 % of the total variation. Head width (HW) explained 56.817% variation in the general body conformation. It showed significant positive high loading of body length (BL) and heart girth (HG). The results suggested that PCA may be used with minimum number of biometric traits of body conformation.
Key words: Cholistani cattle, Principal component analysis, Traits, Body length, Breeding program.
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