PHENOTYPIC VARIATION OF SOME QUALITATIVE TRAITS IN WEST AFRICAN DWARF GOATS

Each class of livestock has some peculiar qualitative traits and in goats some of these are coat pigmentation, horned/polled, beard/non-beard, wattled/non-wattled. Since the impact of environment is important in phenotypic expression of qualitative traits, it becomes expedient to examine these features in West African Dwarf Goats (WADG) from every climatic region of the world. To accomplish this, a total of 623 WADGs aged between 3 and 4 years reared extensively in Ekiti state region of Nigeria were purposively selected from the three agricultural zones in the state for the examination. Data were collected on coat pigmentation, horns, wattle and beard on sex basis. The commonest pigmentation was black at 31.29%, 35.43% and 34.18% in the three zones and the least encountered was mixed pigmentation at 11.66%, 07.62% and 08.44% respectively. The number without wattles (57%) outnumbered those with wattles (43%). 88% had no beards and 87% were horned. 30% of does had wattles and 59% were horned as against 13% and 29%, respectively in bucks. In all, 2% of doe and 9% of buck had beards. The levels of variation in the traits surveyed in the three Districts indicated that WADGs in the region are predominantly black, not wattled, not bearded and horned.