Multivariate characterisation of morpho-biometric traits of indigenous helmeted Guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) in Nigeria

Abstract

This study was conducted to characterise phenotypically helmeted Guinea fowls in three agro-ecologies in Nigeria using multivariate approach. Eighteen biometric characters, four morphological indices and eleven qualitative physical traits were investigated in a total of 569 adult birds (158 males and 411 females). Descriptive statistics, non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis H test followed by the Mann–Whitney U and Dunn-Bonferroni tests for post hoc, Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), Univariate Analysis, Canonical Discriminant Analysis, Categorical Principal Component Analysis and Decision Trees were employed to discern the effects of agro-ecological zone and sex on the morphostructural parameters. Agro-ecology had significant effect (P<0.05; P<0.01) on all the colour traits. In general, the most frequently observed colour phenotype of Guinea fowl had pearl plumage colour (54.0%), pale red skin colour (94.2%), black shank colour (68.7%), brown eye colour (49.7%), white earlobe colour (54.8%) and brown helmet colour (72.6%). The frequencies of helmet shape and wattle size were significantly influenced (P<0.01) by agro-ecology and sex. Overall, birds from the Southern Guinea Savanna zone had significantly higher values (P<0.05) for most biometric traits compared to their Sudano-Sahelian and Tropical Rainforest counterparts. They were also more compact (120.00 vs. 110.00 vs. 107.69) but had lesser condition index (7.66 vs. 9.45 vs. 9.30) and lower long-leggedness (19.71 vs. 19.23 vs. 9.51) than their counterparts from the two other zones. Sexual dimorphism (P<0.05) was in favour of male birds especially those in Southern Guinea Savanna and Sudano-Sahelian zones. However, the MCA and discriminant analysis revealed considerable intermingling of the qualitative physical traits, biometric traits and body indices especially between the Sudano-Sahelian and Tropical Rainforest birds. In spite of the high level of genetic admixture, the Guinea fowl populations could to a relative extent be distinguished using wing length, body length and eye colour. Generally, the birds from the three zones appeared to be more homogeneous than heterogeneous in nature. However, further complementary work on genomics will guide future selection and breeding programs geared towards improving the productivity, survival and environmental adaptation of indigenous helmeted Guinea fowls in the tropics.

West African Dwarf goat populations of Tropical Rainforest zone: Application of Multivariate analysis tools on their characterization using morpho-biometric traits.

“…The general phenotypic variations observed amongst the WAD goats studied indicates a genetic diversity that is important in the conservation plans for future uses of animals, which better understanding of the morphometries and external features could help to speed up the implementation of such conservation policies to assist local resources survival and sustainance (Yakubu et al, 2022). However, the dominance of the various qualitative traits such as coat colour being black, colour pattern being plain, horn shape being and beard presence being present in this study, shows that the WAD goats studied are similar to the ones reported elsewhere (Ozoje, 2002;Dossa et al, 2007), which makes them unique in their environment and could be easily identi ed.…”

“…The percentage of individuals correctly classi ed from the sample that generated the model helped to determine the ability of this discriminant model to identify goats in the locations. The split-sample validation (crossvalidation) method was used to evaluate the accuracy of the classi cation (characterization) (Yakubu et al, 2022) .…”

“…Yakubu et al, (2022) reported a combination of body length, wing length and eye colour as major determiner of guinea fowl classi cation into agro ecological zones based on CHAID and Exhaustive CHAID algorithm analysis.…”

Exploiting morphobiometric and genomic variability of African indigenous camel populations-A review

“…When setting a breeding objective, multiple traits are combined irrespective of whether one trait is dominant over others (Sölkner et al, 2008;Yakubu et al, 2019). All economically important traits Frontiers in Genetics frontiersin.org Frontiers in Genetics frontiersin.org should be considered in the breeding objective; thus, production and functional traits, the latter increasing profit by reducing costs, need to be taken into consideration.…”

“…Camel bulls appeared to have higher values for size measures, which is an indication of sexual dimorphism ( Tandoh and Gwaza, 2017 ). Such dimorphism could have resulted from the differential pressures (sexual- and natural-selection) experienced by both sexes ( Yakubu et al, 2022 ). However, measurements done manually have some disadvantages such as stress of camels, less accuracy and livestock aggressiveness (leading to the attack of the individuals taking the measurements).…”