Body Indices of Garole Sheep Reared in West Bengal (India)

The study was conducted to assess some morphometrical traits and calculate structural indices of Garole rams and ewes reared at some selected villages of Joynagar, Mandirbazar and Mahishadal blocks of West Bengal (India). The results of the study indicated that the Garole sheep is reared under semi intensive condition sustaining by grazing on unimproved and degraded pasture, inundated lands or just besides the road sides. The results indicated variation across the studied locations for most of the traits studied, the variation was observed among both the rams and ewes. The observations of the structural indices indicated that most of the traits varied (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05), across the sex, age groups and studied locations, the results also pointed out that if selected Garole has a potential as a mutton breed. Therefore, immediate conservation and selection efforts need to be initiated to arrest the genetic dilution of the breed. The results of the cluster analysis indicated that the sheep from Mandirbazar and Mahishadal blocks have similar morphometrical traits which may be because the two locations are near to each other separated by the river Hooghly.