Morphological characterization and habitat suitability modeling of the goat population of Benin under climate change scenarios

Abstract

Background Insufficient knowledge of the genetic and phenotypic diversity in the local Beninese goat population combined with the lack of understanding of its adaptive capacity to ongoing environmental and societal changes hampers the development of strategies for better management and genetic improvement. The objective of this study was to establish the current geographical distribution of goats in Benin based on their morphology and model the potential habitat suitability of the three known main goat phenotypes (i.e., Djallonké goat or Type I, Sahelian goat or Type II, and their Crossbreeds or Type III) under climate change scenarios. Ten qualitative and 26 linear body measurements were taken on 2114 adult female goats sampled across the three vegetation zones of the country. Fifteen ratios were generated from the quantitative variables. The data were analyzed using generalized linear model procedures followed by multiple comparisons of least-squares means and multivariate analytical methods, including canonical discrimination analysis and hierarchical ascendant classification. Each goat was then assigned to one of the three aforementioned main goat phenotypes following its morphological characteristics and according to the a priori cluster membership defined in the previous step. The Maximum Entropy algorithm was used to model the current and future distribution of the three goat phenotypes under climate change scenario using the Representative Conservation Pathways 4.5 and 8.5. Results All linear body measurements varied among vegetation zones. In the discriminant function analysis, 71% of the measured individuals were correctly classified in their vegetation zone of origin by seven measured variables and three ratios. The cluster procedure analysis revealed two groups of goats subdivided into the three main phenotypes. The modeling results showed that the currently highly favorable habitats were distributed in the South for Type I, in the North for Type II, and both South and North for Type III. However, under climate change scenarios, the favorable habitats for Type I decreased while those of Types II and III increased. Conclusions The results of this study confirm the spatial variation of the goat population in Benin. The habitat suitability model can be used to support decision-making toward better management of goat genetic diversity in Benin.

Morphometric Characterization of Local Goat Breeds in Two Agroecological Zones of Burkina Faso, West Africa

“…Globally, Sudano-Sahelian population showed large body proportions compared to goats in Sudanian zone, suggesting distinct ancestry of goats in the two areas. This trend corroborates the findings of previous similar studies of goats in Burkina Faso and in Benin [ 8 , 30 , 31 ]. Compared to the findings of previous studies, except of body length and horns length which were higher, measurements such as height at withers and ear length of Sudanian goats in this study were close to the findings of [ 29 ] in the same area.…”

“…Ranking from the tallest to the smallest, we identified Sahelian × Mossi crossed, Mossi from the Sudano-Sahelian zone, Sahelian × Djallonké crossed, and Djallonké from the Sudanian zone. The variation from large to small body size observed from the Sudano-Sahelian to Sudanian zone confirms the findings of previous studies supporting that goats body size tends to decrease following the geographical gradient north–south [ 8 , 26 , 31 , 34 ]. The difference in size between the native breeds of the two agroecological zones, i.e., Mossi in the Sudano-Sahelian and Djallonké in the Sudanian zones, probably comes from natural selection.…”

“…Compared to the findings of previous studies, except of body length and horns length which were higher, measurements such as height at withers and ear length of Sudanian goats in this study were close to the findings of [ 29 ] in the same area. However, except for height at rump and horns length, other body measurements of our study, such as height at withers, height at rump, chest depth, body length, ear length, neck length, tail length, chest girth, and body weight, were lower than those of Guineo-Sudanian goats of Benin [ 31 ]. However, these two population were suggested to be nearer [ 30 ].…”

“…Male animals were excluded from the analysis of the current study due to their low number at adult age. Previous investigation on West African goats morphological characteristics were also done only with female animals [ 8 , 30 , 31 ]. The low proportion of adult males in flocks could be explained by several reasons.…”

Genetic diversity assessment of the indigenous goat population of Benin using microsatellite markers

“…These statistics were addressed to assess the performance of the loci and to describe the genetic diversity of the Beninese goat population. F-statistic indices (F IS , F ST , F IT ) (Wright, 1969;Weir and Cockerham, 1984), the coefficient of gene differentiation (G ST ), and Nei's genetic distance (Nei, 1978) were then computed using the program SPAGeDi 1.5 days (Hardy and Vekemans, 2002) to assess the genetic variability existing within (intra-) and among (inter-) vegetation zones.…”