Phenotypic diversity of camel ecotypes (Camelus dromedarius) in the South Region of Kerman Province of Iran
Ehsaninia, J. | Faye, Bernard | Ghavi Hossein-Zadeh, N.
The aims of the present study were to evaluate phenotypic diversity and to determine the live body weight of camel ecotypes elevated in the south region of Kerman province in Iran. The morphological characteris-tics and body measurements of 136 camels (117 females and 19 males; aged between 3 and 12 years) from eight regions of the Jazmurian were measured. The ecotypes involved Rudbari, Native and Pakistani camel populations, which are the major camels in these rearing areas. The traits evaluated were length and width of the head, ears and the hump, heart and barrel girth. The live body weight was determined using three traits including barrel girth, heart girth and the height at withers. Data were analyzed with general linear model (GLM) and CORR procedures of SAS program. The overall averages of barrel girth, heart girth, height at shoulders and body weight were 177.56 ± 16.81 cm; 222.77 ± 17.53 cm; 174.32 ± 9.14 cm and 346.21 ± 54.27 kg, respectively. The means for length and width of the head was significantly (P<0.05) higher in Pakistani camel population than Rudbari and Native camels, and Native camels were significantly (P<0.05) important for morphological variables particularly the length and the width of the ears than the other camels. The difference between Pakistani camels and other ecotypes was significant (P<0.05) based on the estimated body weight. There were positive correlations between estimated body weight and biomet-ric traits and the highest value was calculated between body weight and thoracic girth (r=0.94). The results of this study showed that phenotypic diversity of camel ecotypes is valuable to select based on their mor-phological characteristics in breeding programs and the presence of different camel ecotypes based on the morphology may provide a basis for selection and improvement in these populations.
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