For the purpose of the morphometric characterization and
differentiation of local sheep breeds that belong to the group of breeds called Pramenka or Zackel, two Slovenian (Bela Krajina and Istrian Pramenka) and
four Montenegrin sheep breeds (Bardoka, Sjenička, Pivska Pramenka, and
Zeta Žuja) were studied. The variation of morphometric measures and nine
morphometric indices were analysed. Principal component analysis (PCA) was
applied in order to provide an easier description of body size and shape.
Regarding body size, the Sjenička breed was one of the largest breeds (body
weight 76.4 kg, wither height 72.7 cm, chest circumference 100.3 cm), while
Zeta Žuja had the smallest body size (37.1 kg, 64.8, and 81.9 cm). On the other hand, Slovenian Istrian Pramenka had the largest
body length, chest depth, chest width, and rump width among all included
breeds (79.4, 33.6, 22.7, and 21.2 cm). Bela Krajina, Istrian
Pramenka, and the Sjenička breed, according to the index of body frame (IBF) value (107–114),
have a rectangular body frame, Bardoka and Pivska Pramenka have a square body
frame (99.3–100), and Zeta Žuja has a short body frame (91.8). The
PCA of all morphometric parameters extracted three components accounting for 96.6 % of the cumulative variance. An unweighted pair–group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) cluster analysis by Euclidian distance
shows diversity among the studied breeds, through it grouped Pivska Pramenka with
Sjenička and Istrian with Bela Krajina Pramenka in two clusters, while
Bardoka and Zeta Žuja were clustered separately.
