Differentiation of native goat breeds of Jordan on the basis of morphostructural characteristics

A total of 493 does from 50 herds were measured to identify the different Jordanian goat breeds based on morphostructural characteristics. Different discriminant analysis methods (simple, cluster, canonical, stepwise) were applied on 20 metrical variables to discriminate among different genetic groups. Results identified four genetic groups: Damascus, Mountain, Dhaiwi and Desert in addition to a population of crossbred goats. Distribution of Mountain and Damascus breeds and the crossbred population was over the five clusters with varying frequencies. Dhaiwi and Desert breeds showed similar distribution of their populations over the clusters. All pair-wise Mahalanobis distances were significant (P < 0.001). Mountain goat breed tends to have the closest distance to all other native goats in Jordan. The largest distance was that between Dhaiwi and Damascus breeds (22.23). The dendrogram showed two large clusters: cluster one included Damascus breed as a large group and two sub clusters of Mountain breed and crossbred goats. Cluster two included Desert and Dhaiwi breeds. The canonical discriminant analysis and the stepwise discriminant analysis revealed that nose shape was the most discriminating variable among different pair-wise breeds' comparisons, followed by withers height (WH) then body weight, ear type, color and teat placement. Chest width (CW), withers depth (WD), rump width showed small discriminatory power. Crossbred goats have been found to be derived mainly from Damascus and Mountain breeds, with more relation to the latter. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.