Abstract
This study was conducted to assess the morphological characteristics of the donkey (Equus asinus) population in Katsina State, Nigeria. One hundred and three (103) donkeys (39 female and 64 male), randomly selected, were grouped into three age categories for this study. Data collected included: body weight and ten (10) body measurements. The statistical analysis of variance was applied for estimation the effects of sex and age on the studied parameters. Variance Inflation Factors (VIF), as a multicollinearity diagnostic tool of the independent variables, were incorporated in the regression models. The principal component analysis with a variance maximizing the orthogonal rotation was used to extract the components. The factor analysis identified four (4) principal components (PCs) of morphometric traits which explained about 70.392% of the total variance, with a PC1 accounted for 37.912%. The results showed that the body weight was correlated with HG, PG, BL, RH, SH, EL, TL and NC (ranging from 0.464 to 0.946; p<0.01) and body weight correlated to NL (r = 0.402; p<0.05) and HL (r = 0.375; P<0.05). The best predictors of body weight (BWT) in female and male revealed that the combination of heart girth, body length and rump height featured prominently in the prediction of BWT.
Keywords: body weight, donkeys, morphological, prediction, regression