Relationship between Linear Body Measurement and Live Body Weight in West African Dwarf Goats in Obio Akpa

A study was conducted to determine the phenotypic relationship between linear body measurements, Heart girth (HG), Body depth (BD), Rump height (RH), Height at wither (HAW), Body length (BL) and body weight (BWT); and to predict body weight from linear body measurements using two hundred and ninety four West African Dwarf (WAD) goats (250 females and 44 males) in four age groups varied between 6-12 months (0PPI-wihout pair of permanent incisors), 1-1.5 year (1PPI), 1.5-2 year (2PPI), and 2.5 – 3 years (3PPI). The data obtained from this study were analyzed using linear and multiple regressions. Results showed that the mean live body weight of female WAD goats in the four age category were 9.563 ± 4.844, 12.628 ± 4.958, 21.077 ± 6.558 and 23.885± 3.652 kg, respectively while males of age group (0PPI) and (PP1) recorded 6.963±1.43 and 12.235 ± 4.815kg respectfully. There were significant correlation (P<0.001) between body weight and measured linear measurements, HG (r = 0.681), BD (r = 0.669), RH (r = 0.607), HAW(r = 0.571), BL (r = 0.634), in the pooled group irrespective of sex or age. Simple linear regression analysis showed that body weights could be predicted accurately from heart girth at different ages studied; multiple regression showed high accuracy when more variables were included in the prediction equations (R2 = 0.803, 0.694 and 0.710 for male, female and male/female groups respectively in the pooled age group). This indicated that there was high correlation between linear body measurements and live body weight which could be used as selection criteria in improving meat production in WAD goat. The highest R2 was obtained when all the body measurements were included in the regression equations; this suggests that live body weight could be estimated more accurately by combination of two or more linear measurements. Key words: WAD goat, body weight, linear body measurements, relationshi