Exploring Biometric Traits in Osmanabadi Goats: A Principal Component Analysis Approach

The present investigation was conducted to obtain phenotypic correlations between different morphometric traits and body conformation of Osmanabadi goat using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method.A total 7 biometric traits were considered for the present study viz.,Wither Height (WH), Chest Girth (CG), Body Length (BL), Rump Height (RH), Horn Length (HL), Ear Length (EL) and Body weight (BW). The data of total 765 animals were collected.Two principal components were extracted from seven body measurements. The principal component analysis explained a cumulative variance of 71.1% across the extracted components. The largest portion of the variance (58.2%) was explained by the first principal component (PC1), with the second principal component (PC2) accounting for an additional 12.8%.PC1 was predominantly defined by wither height (WH), body weight (BW), chest girth (CG), body length (BL), ear length (EL), and rump height (RH), reflecting its strong association with general body conformation traits. In contrast, PC2 was primarily characterized by head length (HL), capturing a smaller but distinct proportion of variance. These findings indicate that key biometric traits such as wither height, chest girth, and body length exhibit strong mutual correlations and are closely associated with body weight. Thus, PCA effectively summarizes the underlying structure of biometric measurements, with PC1 serving as the major determinant of overall body conformation. The results suggest that the extracted components can be reliably utilized for evaluation and selection, particularly when grouping animals based on correlated morphological traits.