Effect of Coat Characteristics on Physiological Traits and Heat Tolerance of Dwarf Sheep in South-South, Nigeria

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of coat characteristics on physiological traits and heat tolerance of dwarf sheep in south-south Nigeria. A total number of twenty West African dwarf male sheep with an average weight of 9.00+0.52kg and aged 10 months old were used for the experiment. The dwarf sheep were assigned to four treatment groups in a completely randomized design with five sheep per treatment group. The compared treatment groups were TA (black coat colour sheep with low coat depth and short hair length), TB (black coat colour sheep with high coat depth and long hair length), TC (light brown coat colour sheep with low coat depth and short hair length) and TD (light brown coat colour sheep with high coat depth and long hair length). The results obtained in the study showed that midday was significantly (P<0.05) highest in ambient temperature (31.000C) and temperature humidity index....