Thesis(M.Sc. (Animal Production)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Donkeys continue to play a significant role in draught power activities for both rural
and urban regions in underdeveloped countries, where they are commonly employed
for transportation of goods and movement of people at extremely low prices. The study
sought to determine donkey farmers' breeding practices as well as donkey
morphological characterization in three villages such as Thorp, Archibalt and Genau
of the Blouberg Local Municipality. A total of 21 donkey farmers and 74 donkeys were
used to collect data. The following Morphological traits characterized were; Head
length (HL), Ear length (EL), Neck length (NL), Chest width (CW), Back length (Bal),
Body length (BoL), Hips width (HW), Umbilical circumference (UC), Back height (BH),
Height at the rump (HR), Thoracic circumference (TC), Chest depth (CD), Withers
Height (WH), Front leg length (FLL), Cannon circumference (CC), Cannon length (CL),
Cannon height (CH) and Body weight (BW). Descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests,
Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation, and Rank Index were used for
data analysis. Education level of the farmers in the three villages was significantly
different (p<0.05) with the majority of farmers having secondary education. There was
no significant difference (p>0.05) amongst the villages on different reasons behind
keeping donkeys. The results showed a significant difference (p<0.05) in inbreeding
knowledge by the farmers amongst the three villages. The selection criteria used
across the three villages were not significantly different (p>0.05). Rank and Indices in
selection of male donkeys looked at body size (0.39), growth rate (0.19), Draught
power performance (0.14), and for overall preference in female donkeys it was body
size (0.26), twinning ability (0.23) and mothering ability (0.15). Body size and growth
rate where the most important traits to donkey farmers. The coat colours were not
significantly different (p>0.05). In all the eighteen measured traits, only four (BaL, HW,
BH and FLL) showed a significant difference (p<0.05) among the three villages. BW
in male donkeys was not significantly correlated (p>0.05) with HL, EL, NL, BaL, HW,
FLL, CC, CH, CL but was positively correlated (p<0.05) with BoL (r = 0.34), UC (r =
0.35), TC (r = 0.33), CD (r = 0.31), CW (0.94), BH (r = 0.41), HR (0.60), and WH (r =
0.58). BW in female donkeys was not significantly correlated (p>0.05) with NL, BaL,
TC, and CL but positively significant correlated (p<0.05) with HL, EL, BoL, HW, UC,
FLL and CC CW, BH, HR, WH and CH with correlation coefficient values ranging from
0.34 to 0.75. The farmers had no breeding program in place the donkeys were allowed
to mate on their own without designed breeding program. Selection of donkeys to be
part of the heard was based on physical attributes, such length It was concluded that
donkey farmers in Genau, Archibalt, and Thorp villages engaged in breeding practices
that could be valuable in construction of a community-based breeding program.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ul/oai:ulspace.ul.ac.za:10386/3931 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Maswana, Masixole |
| Contributors | Tyasi, T. L., Mugwabana, T. J. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | xi, 60 leaves |
| Relation |
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