Typology, Genetic Diversity and Genome Wide Scan for Signatures of Selection of Productivity Traits in Indigenous Goats in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

Data on the characterization of animal genetic resources are essential in the development of breeding and conservation schemes to ensure their sustainable use. The present study aimed at assessing the phenotypic traits, reproductive performances, production management, and smallholder farmer-preferred traits in the selection of indigenous goats in three agro-ecological zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Based on a structured survey, baseline data were recorded on 320 adult and unrelated goats from 202 goat farms. Only female goats (does) were considered in this study (justified in chapter 5). It has been observed that the oldest doe in farms was 3.34 ±1.48 years old and found in South Kivu with 3.85±1.71 number of kidding. Hirarchical clustering on principal components revealed three clusters in the studied goats well distinguished by the double and triple kidding. Prolific goats were mostly clustered into the cluster two and three represented by goats from South Kivu while 82.69% of goats from Tshopo were clustered into cluster one characterized by low reproductive performances. The Canonical Discriminant Analysis (CDA) revealed that the body length was an important variable both to discriminate and to classify goats from the three geographical regions. The Mahalanobis‘s distances revealed that indigenous goats Kinshasa and South Kivu were not distanced (ns) while the largest distance was observed between goats from Kinshasa and Tshopo or South Kivu and Tshopo (F-stat, p< 0.001). No innovations or good management practices were applied in goat breeding. However, goats were considered as a source of income and saving method in smallholder farmer‘s households. Adaptability to the region, disease resistance, and prolificacy were the important traits considered by farmers in selecting goats. These results give the first step in the decision-making towards goat improvement in the DRC.