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Abstract

ABSTRACT Sexual dimorphism is the consequence of the combined sex-specific genes on the sex chromosomes and sex-specific gene expression in female and male animals. The study was conducted to investigate the influence of sex on body weight (BW) and linear body measurement traits viz. body length (BL), rump height (RH), heart girth (HG), rump width (RW), ear length (EL), cannon circumference (CC), and head width (HW) of Boer goats. A total of 71 yearling Boer goats (14 bucks and 57 does) were used. Pearson correlations and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. The correlation results revealed that BW had a positively and high statistically significant (P < 0.01) relationship with BL (r = 0.62), HG (r = 0.83) and RH (r = 0.56) in bucks. Whereas BW had a positively high statistically significant (P < 0.01) correlation with BL (r = 0.86), HG (r = 0.74), RH (r = 0.69), RW (r = 0.53), CC (r = 0.64), and HW (r = 0.57) in does. Student’s T-test indicated that body measurement traits were significantly (P < 0.05) affected by sex, with bucks having a higher mean value for all the traits than does. In conclusion, this study discovered the presence of marked sexual dimorphisms in body measurement traits of Boer goats. Therefore, body measurement traits might be used as the indicators of sexual dimorphisms in Boer goats.