Canonical and hierarchical analyses of body measurements in four Nigerian cattle breeds under an extensive management system

Cattle are significant livestock worldwide, primarily kept for meat and milk production. Four Nigerian cattle breeds of White Fulani (Bos indicus), Gudali (Bos indicus), Azawak (Bos indicus), and Red Bororo (Bos taurus × Bos indicus) had the genetic potential to produce meat and milk optimally under extensive management systems. This study aimed to characterize these four adult Nigerian cattle breeds based on 26 body measurement variables. Two statistical analyses, canonical discriminant analysis (CDA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), were performed to differentiate the breeds using SPSS 16.0 software. The results revealed that 13 variables of head width, head length, body length, body width, body depth, chest length, chest girth, chest depth, rump length, rump width, hump length, hump width, and dewlap width were discriminant variables for characterizing the four Nigerian cattle breeds. Furthermore, the breeds Gudali (GU), Azawak (AZ), and White Fulani (WF) / Red Bororo (RB) could be classified into distinct clusters based on these morphometric traits. The canonical correlation coefficients were 0.95 for function 1 and 0.86 for function 2. However, the WF and RB breeds could not be discriminated based on their body measurements due to their close genetic distance (0.21). In contrast, the genetic distance between GU and AZ breeds was 1.77. Overall, the body measurements were able to classify approximately 87% of WF, 99% of GU, 98% of AZ, and 70% of RB into their original groups. In conclusion, the body measurements of WF and RB are similar, which may be attributed to their close genetic composition, likely resulting from continuous crossbreeding over several generations.