Effect of genetic and non-genetic factors on various coat characteristics in Tharparkar and Vrindavani cattle

Abstract

The present study was conducted on a total of 42 milch animals (21Tharparkar cattle and 21 Vrindavani cattle) at cattle and Buffalo farm (Indian Veterinary Research Institute. The objective was to study the effect of various genetic and non-genetic factors on coat characteristics like coat colour, coat score coat thickness etc. The effect of breed, age at calving, season of calving and parity was found to be significant (p<0.05) on most of the coat characteristics except hair coat score and hair diameter. Vrindavani cattle had higher hair length and higher hair densities in all seasons in comparison to Tharparkar cattle (p<0.05).The coat thickness was lower in Vrindavani cattle (p<0.05). From the present study, it was concluded that various genetic and non-genetic factors affect coat characteristics in cattle.