Morphological characteristics of indigenous cattle in Eritrea

Indigenous cattle are the main livestock reared among African communities. Indigenous cattle have some distinguishing characteristics that can be used for attribution and grouping. A total of 243 indigenous cattle from 27 populations spread out in three major agro-ecological zones in Eritrea were utilised in this study. A total of 14 morphological measurements comprising of seven reproductive indices and seven production performance indicators were used to characterise the indigenous cattle. Cluster analysis based on singlelinkage agglomerative hierarchical and non-overlapping (SAHN) technique was used to form homogenous groups. Discriminant function analysis was performed to ascertain the accuracy of the classification. The sampled population clustered around two groupings which were cattle populations found in the highlands and eastern coasts (cluster Arado) and those found in western lowland (cluster Barka).The analysis revealed that the Arado cluster mean linear measurements were low for wither height (114.4±0.8 cm), body length (111.75±2.1 cm) and heart girth (134.65±0.9 cm) than the Barka cluster which were 125.3±0.6, 126.8±0.7, and 156.4±0.7 respectively. The squared Mahalanobis distance was highest (5.1) between cattle population in central highlands and eastern lowlands, and lowest (1.93) between populations in central highlands and western lowlands. There was wide variation in morphology, reproductive performance, and productivity within and between cattle populations. This information is useful in a breeding program which utilizes the available variation within and between breeds in enhancing productivity of indigenous cattle populations in Eritrea.