Morphobiometric characterization of donkey resources in the extreme west of Algeria

The goal of this study is to characterize the diversity of the Algerian south donkey population, characterize its biometric variability, and determine the evolutionary relationships of this animal with its congeners at various latitudes. A total of sixty-six adult asses, distributed on the level of three wilayas from where eleven body measurements, six body indexes developed in horses and adapted to donkeys were calculated, and seven phenotypical characters were retained for this study. Measurements Lsi, HG, TP, LH, LE, Pc, LT, LO, LQ, LaT, Tm, Pv1, Pv2 are respectively: 98.05±10.46; 105.31±6.59; 188.88 ±8.61; 32.62±4.61; 27,17±4.41; 15.52±2.42; 50.92±3.82; 24.07±3.59; 39.24±14.30; 23.174±3.09; 41.82±3.52; 171.83±32.76; 145.83±27.62. Those information are used to compute 6 body indexes. According to body and profile indexes we deduce that our animals were medial linear and small (PI ≈ 1,08 and BI ≈ 0,82), they could not even bear their own weight loads (CI > 1), their heads were long (HI ≈ 0,45< 1) with a square body shape (LI ≈ 0,93< 1,10). Donkeys’ thoracic development was average according to (CD≈ 1,13). All parameters except the LE, PC, TM for the regions showed a significant difference on examined body measurements (p>0,05). On the phenotypical characteristics, a factorial analysis of the multiple correspondences revealed two main components that account for 48,90 and 44,26 % of total inertia, or 93,2 %. These percentages are related to the dress color, the head, the members, the hairs, the muzzle, and the belly. This research revealed significant phenotypic differences that should be included in the specie’s characterization and conservation efforts.