Application of Morphological Indices in the Assessment of Body Weight and Type in Javanese Fat Tailed and Javanese Thin Tailed Sheep

Abstract

Body weight and eight body measurements records taken on 78 male sheep comprising 64 Javanese Fat Tailed and 14 Javanese Thin Tailed sheep were analysed. The sheep were semi-intensively managed within the West Java. The aim to achieve a preliminary assessment of weigth and type from zoometrical indices produced from combinations of different morphometric scores. The body measurements used were body length, girth depth, chest width, wither height, hip width, rump height, chest depth, rump length. The indices used were weight, height slope, length index, width slope, depth index, foreleg length, balance and cumulative index. The body measurements showed that the Javanese Fat Tailed is bigger than the Javanese Thin Tailed sheep. Tested indices showed that Javanese Fat Tailed sheep are meat typical. This was shown by the cumulative index and balance indices which were 3.66 and 0.60 in Javanese Fat Tailed sheep. Girth depth in both breeds can be the assessment of body weight because had highest correlation (p<0.05) i.e. 0.62 in Javanese Fat Tailed and 0.92 in Javanese Thin Tailed sheep.

Indeks adalah alternatif dalam penilaian ternak sebagai indikator tipe dan fungsi ternak. Indeks dianggap paling tepat dalam penilaian bobot badan karena mencangkup konformasi atau bentuk ternak, panjang dan keseimbangan tubuh ternak. Indeks diharapkan menjadi alternatif uji empiris dengan terbatasnya pengukuran tunggal untuk penilaian bobot dan tipe ternak. Indeks juga diharapkan dapat meningkatkan kemampuan peternak dalam mengevaluasi ternak dan juga dapat meningkatkan kemampuan dalam memilih potensi breeding stock.