The Effect of Age and Location Pattern on the Morphometry of Purebred Redhead Barbary Ewes Reared under Arid Climate

Tunisian Barbary sheep are well-known for their rusticity and adaptation to harsh environmental conditions, especially, those of the arid climate. Morphometric characteristics of this main breed, although, have not been extensively investigated. In this study, we provide a morphological characterization, via eight body measures, of 249 ewes, aged from one to nine years, and sampled from farms, belonging to two locations, which have been maintained a purebred nucleus of this breed. Analysis of variance revealed that morphometric traits are partially influenced by age group and location with different significance levels. Ewes reached the full morphological dimension broadly between 4 and 6 years of age, except for the tail part that tends to be longer precociously at 1-2 years of age. Thus, having a longer tail at an early age (<2 years), in the genetic architecture of this fat-tailed breed, could represent a form of adaptation to the arid climate, which is the main hypothesis-driven from the present morphometric analysis. This study provides insights into the morphological peculiarities of purebred Barbary ewes under the particular arid environment and reflects some possible adaptive properties, giving rusticity to this indigenous fat-tailed sheep resource.