Methodological approach to the endangered breeds study through the Univariate and Multivariate Analysis: characterization of Pecora dell’Amiata sheep

Introduction - This work involves the Pecora dell’Amiata sheep, a Tuscan endangered breed enrolled in the Register of autochthonous sheep and goat populations with limited consistence. Aim - The aim of the study was to compare through the Univariate and Multivariate Analysis, the ewe biometrics among farms. Materials and methods - In this study were analysed the biometrics of 48 adult ewes reared in five farms of Amiata Mount, in province of Grosseto. Results were submitted to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Discriminant Analysis. The Mahalanobis distance was also performed. Results and discussion - The largest animals were in Farm 5, whereas the smallest sheep were in farm 1. PCA identified in PC 2 Farm 3 and Farm 5 for the chest measures, and the trunk length. Farm 1 ewes showed the lower indices related to thorax (p ≤ 0.001). The canonical discriminant identified four canonical variables. All animals were well identified in the canonical 1, that mainly discriminated the parameters of head, chest and pelvis. Farm 3 and farm 4, slightly overlapped, were separated from other farms. The higher Mahalanobis distance was between farm 1 and farm 2 (106.00). Conclusions - Animals were enough inhomogeneous among farms because the breed is at the beginning of its recovery.