Phenotypic characterization, population structure, breeding management and recommend breeding strategy for Fogera cattle (Bos indicus) in Northwestern Amhara, Ethiopia

Abstract

Summary: The study was carried out in selected districts in the Northwestern Amhara, from October 2012 to May 2013. The objective of the study were to undertake on-farm and on-station phenotypic characterization of Fogera Cattle in comparison with two different local cattle population, to characterize the population structure and to identifying trait preferences, breeding management and to recommend breeding strategy for Fogera cattle. Both purposive and random samplings were employed. Data were gathered through semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussions, field observations, census data, direct count and body measurements. About 126 smallholder farmers were interviewed. About 21 quantitative and 17 qualitative phenotypic data types were also generated from 332 cattle. The Effective population size (Ne) and rate of inbreeding (ΔF) were calculated from the counted population structure data. Both GLM procedures of SAS and descriptive statistics of SPSS software's were employed for data analyses. The results indicated that Fogera cattle were kept mostly for milk (97.62 percent). The main threats identified for the survival of Fogera cattle were scarcity of feed resources and interbreeding with other indigenous cattle, which are less demanding in terms of feed. Fogera cattle population has specific morphological appearance. Generally about 65.2 percent of male pure-Fogera cattle population are having large hump and large dewlap (93.5 percent) with cervico-thoracic (82.6 percent) hump position and long tail (97.8 percent), respectively. The coat pattern of male pure-Fogera cattle is dominated by the spotted coat pattern (82.6 percent) with 43.5 percent white black and 39.1 percent black white coat colour. Female Fogera cattle have medium (94.4 percent) hump size at cervico-thoracic positions (73.2 percent), large dewlap (62.7 percent) and long tail which is well below the hock (91.5 percent). The coat pattern of female pure-Fogera cattle is dominated by white spotted (80.3 percent) with 43.0 percent white black and 33.1 percent black white coat colour Most of the quantitative traits were highly significantly (P≤ 0.001) affected by breed type. Except horn length and horn space all of quantitative traits for both sexes of pure-Fogera cattle from on-station were significantly (P≤ 0.05) larger than those of the on-farm. The average linear body measurement taken on a total of 46 male pure-Fogera cattle populations were 42.68 ± 0.56 cm (mouth circumference), 16.35 ± 0.72 cm (horn length), 37.04 ± 1.16 cm (dewlap width) and 129.17 ± 1.33 cm (height at wither). The average linear body measurements for female pure-Fogera cattle were 38.23 ± 0.18 cm (mouth circumference), 13.81 ± 0.37 cm (horn length), 27.20 ± 0.42 cm (dewlap width) and 123.68 ± 0.52 cm (height at wither). The population structure were dominated by Pure-Fogera constituting 37.02 percent, Interbred with Fogera (33.71 percent) and non-Fogera (29.23 percent). The effective population size of pure-Fogera cattle was 4295, with 9016 total population. The average inbreeding level for the population was 0.012 percent. Inbreeding is at a low level and the effective population size is large. The calculated parameters indicate satisfactory genetic diversity in Fogera cattle. Milk yield, colour, power, body size and growth rate of Fogera were the most dominant traits perceived to be good by the respondents. The special qualification of this breed is to live at high amount of flooding areas with adapting other very challenging environment. Pure breeding of pure-Fogera, interbred with Fogera and non-Fogera type of breeds was used for breeding practice with natural mating. The Andassa Research Center established in 1964 as Fogera cattle population improving centre, but according to different source, population viability and population structure indicated that the population are not viable and highly admixture with other indigenous cattle breeds. According to this in order to improve the population status of Fogera cattle we recommended control with open-nucleus breeding strategy. So in order to minimize the risk status of this breed and conserve for the future generation any responsible agent should be given priority.