Principal Component Analysis of Morphometric Traits of West African Dwarf Goats

The study was conducted to evaluate the principal component analysis of phenotypic attributes of West African Dwarf (WAD) goat. Data collected on the live body weight and twelve morphometric traits of the goats which were categorised into four age groups based on their dentition. The age groups were: less than 2years old, 2- 3years old, 3-4 years old and 4 years old. The data were subjected to a PCA and Cluster analyses using the multivariate procedure components of SAS (2003). Result revealed that highest values of morphometric traits were obtained in goats that of 4 years old. The rate of increase in body weight and other morphometric traits was high in age group of ˂2 years to age 2-3years compared to differences observed in others across the age group. Heart Girth had the highest correlation with body weight. Foreleg, neck, ear and hind leg lengths; wither height and rump height were weakly correlated with the body weight of the goats. Result revealed that two Principal components were retained in the first age group (age group˂2years) which accounted for 72.99% of the total variation. The first PC alone accounted for 63.13% of the total variation while PC2 accounted for the remaining 9.86%. From this study, it was concluded that there is interdependence among body weight and morphometric traits and that morphometric traits can be used in predicting live weight of WAD goats; PCA and Cluster could be exploited in breeding and selection programmes to acquire highly coordinated animal bodies using fewer measurements.