Biometric Variability of Arabia Goat in Laghouat (Algeria) Using the Mean of the Principal Component Analysis

Genetic erosion has a great risk for local goat genetic resources around the world and in Algeria. This study is aimed to verify the homogeneity of Arabia goat through multivariate analysis. A total of 111 females aged three years or more were involved. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Classification Analysis (FICA) were conducted on 14 quantitative variables. Furthermore, 7 body indices were calculated. Through the PCA, the three first factorial components accounted for 60.50% of the total variability (31.02, 20.04 and 9.44%, respectively). HCA allowed classifying the Arabia population into three groups that differ significantly (p<0.05): the group 1 (n=30, 27.03% of the total) is constituted by the smallest goats, the group 2 (n=56, 50.45% of the total) is characterized by the highest values of body length, height at withers and chest circumference and finally the group 3 (n=25, 22.52% of the total) is characterized by the highest values of width measurements and canon circumference. Morphology indices calculated did not show a significant difference between the three groups for cephalic index, body index, body length index and thoracic development index. About body ratio, chest dactyl index, and canon thickness index, a significant difference was shown especially with group 3. This work highlighted the non-existent of morphometric similarity in Arabia breed of Laghouat region (Algeria).