Effect of Coat Characteristics on Physiological Traits and Heat Tolerance of Dwarf Sheep in South-South, Nigeria

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of coat characteristics on physiological traits and heat tolerance of dwarf sheep in south-south Nigeria. A total number of twenty West African dwarf male sheep with an average weight of 9.00+0.52kg and aged 10 months old were used for the experiment. The dwarf sheep were assigned to four treatment groups in a completely randomized design with five sheep per treatment group. The compared treatment groups were T_A (black coat colour sheep with low coat depth and short hair length), T_B (black coat colour sheep with high coat depth and long hair length), T_C (light brown coat colour sheep with low coat depth and short hair length) and T_D (light brown coat colour sheep with high coat depth and long hair length). The results obtained in the study showed that midday was significantly (P<0.05) highest in ambient temperature (31.00⁰C) and temperature humidity index.....