IMPACT OF AGE AND GENDER ON HEAD MEASUREMENTS OF MALYA SHEEP

M. Petkova, S. Çilek

Abstract: This experimental research was carried out with Malya sheep to determinate the effects of age and gender on head measurements. Head measurements were taken from 55 male and 261 female sheep from 1 year-old to 5 or more years-old. Head length, head circumference, head width, distance between ears, ear length and ear width were estimated as head measurements. The least squares method was used to investigate effects of age and gender on these traits. The least squares method was performed using the General Linear Model (GLM) procedure in Minitab package program for statistical analysis. The means of important subgroups as statistic were compared by using Duncan’s multiple range tests. The least squares for head length, head circumference, head width, distance between ears, ear length and ear width were estimated as 32.59±0.17 cm, 49.00±0.18 cm, 13.06±0.07 cm, 20.48±0.10 cm, 15.44±0.10 cm and 8.64±0.04 cm, respectively. The effect of age and gender on all head area measurements were significant (P<0.05) except for the effect on ear length. It can be said that all head area measurements increased significantly with increasing age and males have anatomically bigger head region measurements than females except for ear length. Having shorter ear measurements of males than females in some age groups can be caused by the big individual differences withn Malya breed sheep, which was obtained as a result of combined crossbreeding.

Keywords: crossbreed Merino sheep; female and male sheep; head area measurements; head measurements; least squares method; Malya breed

Date published: 2017-09-05