Abstract:
The study was conducted in three districts ofEast Hararghe Zones, to phenotypically characterize
sheep types of East Hararghe Zone under farmer management conditions, and to identify farmers'
preference for breeding objective traits. Itinvolved both qualitative and quantitative types of
research. A total of 150 indigenous sheep-owning farmers were selected for the survey and only
mature 450 sheep (150 male and 300 non-pregnant females) were taken for a qualitative and
quantitative study. Descriptive statistics, frequency procedures, general linear model, and
multivariate analysis were used with JMP Pro 16.20 to analyze the data. The study result revealed
that the mean flock size of sheep holding per household was 5.14 ± 0.31, 4.8 ± 0.31and 4.06 ± 0.31
for Badeno,Fades, andGoro-gutudistricts respectively. Households of the respondents reported that
the primary reason for keeping sheep in the study area was to generate income followed by saving.
The major sheep production constraints in the study area were feed shortage followed by Disease.
The overall average age at first mating in males was 6.43 ± 0.09, while for females was6.74 ±
0.108 months. Age at first lambing was12.83 ± 0.17 months, and the lambing interval of ewes
was6.76 ± 0.09.Thereproductive life span of ewes and the average number of lambing per
ewe’slifetime was8.25 ± 0.24years and 13.4 ± 0.06 lambs and litter size was1.3 ± 0.093head.Large
body size (appearance), coat colour, and tail type for both sexare the most preferred traits in the
study area. The result of the study showed that the dominant coat colour pattern in the sampled
male and female populations was plain while the most observed coat colour type was light brown
followed by light brown with a white patch. The sex of animals had a significant effect on all of the
body measurements. District effect was not significant (p>0.05) for most of the body measurements
except Body weight. The age of sheep hada significant effect on most of the body measurements.
For males, the correlation coefficients varied from -0.36 (between EL and RL) to 0.69 (BW and
HG); while for females, the corresponding values ranged from -0.12 (between EL and BL) to 0.74
(between BW and HG). In PCA, an eigenvalue greater than 1 indicates that PC accounts for more
of the variance than one of the original variables in standardized data. For females, the first
eigenvalue accounts for about 26.73% of the variation followed by 9.30% of the variation,while for
male the first eigenvalue account for 26.64% and the second for 9.13% of the variation. This study
concludes that the result from morphological trait and multivariate analysis confirmed the
existence of one pop in the Study Area.
