अमूर्त

Assessment of herd size and structure of the savanah muturu on free range in relation to genetic improvement in the Benue trough of Nigeria.

Gwaza DS, Yahaya A, Chia SS

The study was conducted in five local government areas of Benue state, Nigeria; to asses herd size and herd structure of the savanah muturu in relation to genetic improvement. A field study of the Savanah muturu herds were conducted. The mean herd sizes of the savanah muturu were 3.00 ± 0.43, 3.60 ± 0.73, 6.00 ± 2.00, 4.27 ± 0.67, 3.00 ± 2.00. In all the populations, the number of heifers and breeding bulls were low. The number of breeding females were equally low, calf crop were low and there were no heifers for replacement in all the herds. It is evident that allelic drift through random sampling will reduce heterozygosity in these populations. Fertility and other fitness related traits would also be reduced in these populations. Genetic improvement through selection would be practically impossible in these populations, as selection intensities would be too low to exert any improvement on deserve alleles and genotypes.