Morphometric Characterization and Typology of Donkey Farming (Equus Asinus) in the Wilaya of Tlemcen

Abstract

Due to the absence of the ethnic data and studies of racial characterizations of this species in Algeria, which is an endangered species, we contributed to the phenotypical study of donkey population in the area of Tlemcen. A manpower of 61 adult asses, distributed on the level of two areas from where 11 body measurements and 06 phenotypical characters were retained for this study. Measurements LTC, HG, TP, LH, LE, PC, LoT, LoO, LQ, LaT and TM are respectively of 157,26±12,88; 116,16±7,23; 124,26±7,03; 37,15±3,21; 27,07±3,27; 17,50±1,86; 52,39±4,06; 30,15±2,19; 41,42±5,76; 23,01±2,06 and 46,24±4,16cm. the sex does not present any significant effect on studied body measurements (p>0,05). A factorial analysis of the multiple correspondences was carried out on the phenotypical characteristics, and it revealed two principal components which constitute 47,62% and 41,39% of total inertia, percentages respectively related to the color of the dress, the head, the members, the hairs, the muzzle and the belly .This analysis made it possible to establish remarkable phenotypical differences which have implications to take into account in the program of characterization and conservation of the species.

Morphobiometric characterization of donkey resources in the extreme west of Algeria

“…The perimeter of the barrel is used for the calculation of skeletal finesse (Cerqueira et al, 2011;Nicks et al, 2006). The values of this parameter (15,52±2,42) cm at the level of our population are higher than those reported in Tunisia (Ayad et al 2019) and higher than those reported in Serbia population (Djokovic et al 2020), Kabylia population (Ayad et al 2019) and Tlemcen's population (Labbaci et al ,2018).…”

“…The shoulder width is the distance between the two shoulder points, it can be said that our population (LE= 27,17±4,41) cm is superior to the results obtained for northwest Nigeria (John, Akpa, and Iyiola-Tunji 2017) and inferior to that of the (Kefena.,2011) and equal to the donkeys reported in the morphometric study of (Labbaci et al ,2018) The profile and body indexes (PI≈ 1 and BI ≈ 0,80) showed that animals are medial linear and small. Also, according to the body index (CI > 1) the animals studied could not even bear their own weight loads.…”

“…This measure reflects the development of the chest and the muscles that cover it (Nicks et al, 2006). The donkey population studied has a thoracic development (TP) similar to that of the donkey of Kabylia (Ayad et al 2019) and to that of the donkey population of Serbia (Djokovic et al 2020), lower than that of the donkey of Egypt (Mostafa et al, 2020), and to that reported for the Tunisian population of Donkey (AROUA et al, 2020) and Serbia (Stanisic et al 2020) and to Tlemcen's population (Labbaci et al ,2018). The TP values (118,88±8,61) cm at the level of our population are higher than those encountered in the donkey of Sinnar of Ethiopia (Kefena.,2011), the donkey of Eastern Algeria (Hannani et al 2020) and those reported at the level of the population of Nigeria (Khaleel et al 2020).…”

“…The length of the head is superior to that of the Ethiopian donkey Sinnar (Kefena., 2011) and that of the Kabylie (Ayad et al 2019), also, higher than the results reported on the Tunisian donkey (Aroua et al, 2020), Eastern Algeria (Hannani et al 2020 and Nigeria (Khaleel et al 2020). And the same as Tlemcen's population (Labbaci et al, 2018) Measurement of the chest circumference taken behind the forelimbs and passing through the shoulder straps, the measurement behind the withers is more subject to variations due to the respiratory activity of the animals (inspiration/expiration) than the measurement at the height of the withers. This measure reflects the development of the chest and the muscles that cover it (Nicks et al, 2006).…”

“…(FAO, 2019). Only a few studies on this species have been conducted in Algeria (Labbaci et al 2018;Ayad et al 2019;Hannani et al 2020), so our understanding of its zoological potential is limited. In this context, this study aimed to provide some aspects of a solution by addressing the problem at the scale of a large region of Algeria using a morphological characterization technique (West and South).…”