Relationship Between Body Weight and Linear Body Measurements at Various Stages of Permanent Tooth Eruption in Indigenous Matebele Female Goats of Zimbabwe
Relationship Between Body Weight and Linear Body Measurements at Various Stages of Permanent Tooth Eruption in Indigenous Matebele Female Goats of Zimbabwe
Never Assan1,2, Michael Musasira3, Maphios Mpofu3, Nicholas Mwayera4, Kwena Mokoena5, Thobela Louis Tyasi5*
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to evaluate the influence of dental age on predicting body weight (BWT) using Linear body measurements (LBM) in 168 indigenous Matebele goat females of Zimbabwe. LBM and BWT were recorded at various stages of permanent incisor eruption (PE): second pair (I2), third pair (I3), fourth pair (I4), full mouth (FM), and broken mouth (BM). The LBMs were measured using a ruler and centimeter-calibrated tailor’s tape, while BWT was measured using an electronic weighing scale in kilograms. The correlation between BWT and LMBs was assessed using Pearson’s correlation and regression were used for data analysis. The highest correlation was observed between body length (BL) and rump height (RH) (r = 0.70), while BWT and heart girth (HG) showed a significant correlation (r = 0.68) (p<0.05) at I2 stage. Simple regression models demonstrated good predictive power on BWT at the FM stage for HG (R2 = 74%), BL (R2 = 65%), and WT (R2 = 53%) (p<0.05). The predictive power of multiple regression models for I3 was slightly reduced when non-significant components were removed. The findings suggest that HG is the best predictor of BWT during the I3 to FM tooth eruption phases, supporting genetic improvement and selection of replacement females based on LBM. The study concludes that dentition-based age determination influences the correlation between BWT and LBMs in female indigenous goats, with the strongest correlation observed between I2 and I4 eruption periods. Combining HG and RH can optimize body weight prediction for I3 females by reducing variables in the model. The results highlight the importance of dentition-based age estimation and morphometric feature-based body weight prediction in small ruminants, particularly in small-scale animal agriculture where scales and record-keeping are often lacking.
Keywords | Body weight, Dentition, Linear body measurements, Indigenous matebele goat, Zimbabwe
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