Analisi morfometrica di popolazioni bovine con tecniche multivariate

- Morphological traits showing continuous distributions and polygenically controlied may be particularly useful in the classification and the analysis of the distances between populations below the species level. In fact natural and artificial selection affect morphological traits of adaptative value. For this reason, 12 somatic measurements of 466 adult cows were analysed by multivariate methods (analysis of canonical variables). There were two samples of Brown cows, reared in Upper Lario (BA) or in Valsassina (BV), and three samples of Friesians of northeuropean (FNE), northamerican (FNA) or «mixed» (FM) stock. The somatic measurements associated with width (1st canonical variable) and length (2nd canonical variable) and the cephalic measurements were very relevant for discriminating between cow samples of different ethnic origin.