| Phenotypic and physiological characteristics of Egyptian Baladi cattle managed under local farming system. |
| Paper ID : 1052-FCANVU |
| Authors |
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أحمد النحاس * كلية الزراعة - جامعة سوهاج |
| Abstract |
| The aim of this study was to investigate the body measurements of local Egyptian cattle raised with smallholders under a crop/livestock farming system in 13 governorates in three different ecosystems. In the present work, 212 individuals animals (39 males and 173 females), belonging to 135 different herds, were studied. The caliber tool was used to measure body conformation traits of local Egyptian cattle raised with smallholders (on average 16 animals per governorate). The animals managed in Lower Egypt had greater body measurements such as body weight (378.01kg), Heart girth (172.58cm), body length (127.60cm) and pouch girth (178.48 cm) than that raised in upper Egyptian (361.43kg, 170.71cm, 125.34cm, and 172.78cm, respectively) and Middle Egypt (333.66kg, 164.49cm, 121.47cm, and 168.37cm, respectively).There was a higher values of total white blood cells (15.18), lymphocytes (9.60) and number of monocytes (1.51) in lower than Upper Egyptian governorates (12.87, 7.82, 1.40, respectively). On contrary, number of red blood cells (7.79), percentage of hemoglobin (10.30), percentage of hematocrit (33.87) and number of platelets (267.80) in Upper Egyptian governorates than lower Egyptian governorates (7.37, 9.27, 31.23 and 249.80, respectively). The milk composition of Egyptian cattle was analyzed and indicated that the average Fat(%), Solid Not Fat(%), Protein(%), Lactose(%) and total Salts (%) were 5.22%, 9.19%, 3.35%, 5.04% and 0.74%. In conclusion, this study indicated large variation among individuals for body measurements, blood characteristics and milk composition of the Egyptian cattle managed under different ecosystems which confirms the possibility of genetic improvement and selection of animals for meat production. |
| Keywords |
| Baladi cattle, Body measurement, blood characteristics, milk composition |
| Status: Accepted |