4-Title: MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF MORPHOMETRIC TRAITS IN NAGPURI BUFFALOES
Authors: Pooja Raut, S Sajid Ali, Chopade Mahesh, Nandedkar Pandit, Siddiqui Baseer Ahmad and Waquar Ahmad Abdul Razzaque
Source: Ruminant Science (2025)-14(2):125-133.

Abstract

How to cite this manuscript: Raut Pooja, Ali S Sajid, Chopade Mahesh, Pandit Nandedkar, Siddiqui Baseer Ahmad and Waquar Ahmad Abdul Razzaque (2025). Multivariate analysis of morphometric traits in nagpuri buffaloes. Ruminant Science 14(2):125-133.
Abstract
The increasing use of multivariate statistical approaches for breed classification and assessment of body conformation has become an important tool in breed characterization studies. However, in the case of Nagpuri buffaloes, published information on the use of supervised analytical methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) remains limited. In the present study, eighteen biometric body measurements were recorded from 107 adult Nagpuri buffaloes belonging to the native breeding regions of Nagpur, Wardha and Amravati districts of Maharashtra. These measurements included body length, height at withers, leg length, neck length, neck circumference, chest girth, abdominal girth, face length, face width, ear length, horn length, horn circumference, distance between two horns, rump width, distance between pin bones, distance between hip and pubis bones, rump length, and tail length up to switch. To evaluate body conformation, the recorded traits were subjected to Principal Component Analysis using Promax rotation with Kaiser normalization. The PCA extracted six principal components, together accounting for approximately 63.03% of the total observed variation. Communality estimates for the biometric traits varied from 0.794 for body length to 0.447 for rump width. The first principal component explained 25.94% of the total variance and exhibited strong positive loadings for chest girth, abdominal girth, leg length, distance between the hip and pubic bones, rump width, and rump length. This indicates that the first component primarily represents overall body size and pelvic or rump-related characteristics of Nagpuri buffaloes. The remaining five components accounted for 9.03%, 7.36%, 7.31%, 6.94%, and 6.44% of the total variability, respectively. The substantial proportion of variation explained by the first component highlights the importance of pelvic and body size measurements, suggesting that these traits should be given greater emphasis when selecting purebred Nagpuri buffaloes.
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