Prediction of Testicular-epididymal Parameters in Relation to Breed, Age, Body Weight and Body Condition Scores of Three Breeds of Goat

One hundred and twenty (120) matured randomly selected bucks of Red Sokoto Goat Buck (RSGB) (𝑛 = 47), West African Dwarf Buck (WADB) (𝑛 = 24), and Sahal Goat Buck (SGB) (𝑛 = 49) were collected. The overall mean body weight (BW, kg), Scrotal circumference (SC, cm), testicular weight (TW g), testicular circumference (TC cm), testicular length (TL cm), testicular volume (TV ml), testicular density (TD g/cm3), gonadosomatic index (GSI g/kg), epididymal weight (EW g), epididymal length (EL cm), caput weight (Capwt g), corpus weight (Copwt g), caudal weight (Caudwt g), Epididymosomatic index (ESI g/kg) and Epididymal-Testicular weight ratio (ETW g/g) measurements in all bucks were 13.42 kg, 18.70 cm, 89.15 g, 11.33 cm, 6.54 cm, 86.03 ml 1.03 g/cm, 3.52 g/kg, 12.10 g, 11.17 cm, 6.00 g, 1.39 g, 4.82 g, 0.49 g/kg and 0.14 g/g respectively. Breed had significant (P < 0.01) influence on all the parameters under investigation with Sahel Goat breed displaying greater mean values of BW, SC, testicular-epididymal parameters. The values of all paired testicular- epididymal parameters increased significantly with age with ≥ 3 years with the higher mean values and ≥ 1 year with lower mean values, with the exception of the TD, Copwt, ESI and ETW which decreased with age (P< 0.05). BCS fall within BCS1 –BCS4 which was non-significant differences (P> 0.05) in all the paired testicular-epididymal parameters. The multiple regression analysis of the linear combinations of BW, BCS, SC, TD and TV significantly predicted in all breeds. These findings provide data that can be used in preliminary selection of breeding goat bucks from a sexually mature population.