Authors: Brilliant O Agaviezor, Sunday O Peters, Mufliat A Adefenwa, Abdulmojeed Yakubu, Olufunmilayo A Adebambo, Michael O Ozoje, Christian ON Ikeobi, Matthew Wheto, Oyeyemi O Ajayi, Samuel A Amusan, Joel O Ekundayo, Timothy M Sanni, Moses Okpeku, Gbolabo O Onasanya, Marcos De Donato, Babatunde M Ilori, Kadir Kizilkaya and Ikhide G Imumorin
Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology
Abstract
Sheep is important in the socio-economic lives of people around the world. It is estimated that more than half of our once common livestock breeds are now endangered. Since genetic characterization of
Nigerian sheep is still lacking, we analyzed ten morphological traits on 402 animals and 15 microsatellite DNA markers in 384 animals of the 4 Nigerian sheep breeds to better understand genetic diversity for breeding management and germplasm conservation.