Phenotypic characterization and morphometric measures of fattening component traits of sheep in ambasel district, South wollo, Ethiopia

Sheep (Ovis aries) is an adherent of the Mammalia, Artiodactyla, and Caprinae, which are multipurpose and pliable species. Narrow genetic variability of sheep breeds for fattening was a major problem in developing breeds with better adaptation to different agro-ecologies. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the phenotypic diversity and morphometric measures of sheep breeds in terms of fattening and fattening component traits. The study was conducted on 4 sheep breeds with 291 experimental units. Results obtained on variability assessment, associations among fattening-related traits, and qualitative traits of sheep breeds are presented here under the present study. The major purpose of keeping sheep was production of meat (53.9%) and selling purposes (46.2%) in the study area. The special qualities of sheep breeds were tail length, tail circumference, body length, twin-born ability of ewe, rump length, wither height, chest girth, chest depth, ear length, rump width, body coat hair color, and pelvic length of sheep breeds. In the study area, Washera, Menz, Horro, and Arsibale sheep breeds were presented, and most fatteners used Washera and Menz sheep breeds due to their physical appearance. This study recommended that potential sheep breeds of Washera and Menz could be used for sheep fattening programs for morphometric fattening component traits improvement in the study area. Potential sheep breeds should be genotypically evaluated for future use in different sheep ecologies for morphometric fattening component traits improvement under different sheep ecologies.