Measures Carcass traits by ultrasound in goats

Abstract

This work aimed to evaluate the influence of some non-genetic effects on goat’s carcass traits measured by ultrasound, as well as estimate simple correlations between carcass traits obtained with the use of ultrasound, with body condition score and growth curve parameters fitted to the weight of goats in the micro-region of Teresina-PI. Gompertz, Logistic, Von Bertalanffy, Brody and Richards models were fitted for curve description. Were assigned grades subjective 1 to 5 points of body condition score and eye muscle area, eye muscle depth, and breast bone fat thickness were measured by ultrasound images. Environmental effects of month of measurement, type of birth, sex, herd and breed were considered, as well as different used matrices of (co) variance. Pearson’s correlations among measures of carcass traits measured by ultrasound, body condition score, and the fitted growth curve parameters were estimated. The Gompertz model was the best fit in growth curve description. The fixed effects of breed, herd, sex, type of birth, and month measurement, in this order of influence, presented themselves as responsible for a large variation in measures carcass traits. The Gompertz fitted curve parameters and carcass traits present low correlation. The body condition score did not prove to be a good a good indicator for measures carcass traits.