Relationship among some intrinsic milk related traits in extensively managed West African dwarf does

Abstract

Scrutiny of milk production traits is a necessity towards identifying dairy potentiality of West African Dwarf does. Mammary gland morphometric characteristic of lactating extensively managed West African Dwarf (WAD) does (n = 330) was examined based on age, lactation length (LL) and kids’ number. Udder traits (length-UL; width- UW and circumference - UC) and teat traits (Length –TL; diameter- TD and distance between teats -DBT) were examined. Data obtained were subjected to Pearson correlation. The result revealed a nonsignificant influence of kids’ number on all the traits while a significant (P<0.05) but negative correlation coefficient (-0.198) was observed between UC and LL. A strong association was obtained among all the udder traits (UC, UL, UW) and between DBT and udder traits (UC: r = 0.544; UL: r = 0.667 ; UW: r = 0.588). This study concluded that age and lactation length of lactating WAD does had minimal influence on teat and udder characteristics but a selection priority for UL has greater tendency to accompany increase in other mammary gland parts.