Abstract

African goats could be grouped in to three main families: the Dwarf goats of West and Central Africa, the Savannah goats of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Nubian type goats of North Africa. The parents of the Nubian goats came from Asia. It is assumed that the first wave of goats entered Ethiopia from the north between 2000 and 3000 B.C. In sub- Saharan Africa, indigenous breeds of sheep and goats are very important, in fact more important than cattle for the smallscale farmers since they are easier to acquire and to maintain. Goat breeds found in Ethiopia have been identified and classified based on their differences in physical characteristics and genetic make-up. The physical characteristics include body color, size and shape of body parts, and presence or absence of body parts. Few physical features can be used to identify major groups of breeds. Identification and classification of breeds based on physical characteristics can be supported by advanced tools. The majority of Ethiopian goat population is found in large flocks in the arid and semiarid lowlands where pastoralists in the South, East, and West keep them for milk and meat production and for sale. Goats in the highlands are widely distributed in the crop-livestock production systems with very small flock sizes as a means of cash earnings and meat. Phenotypic characterization refers to the morphological descriptions of farm An GR only. It is an essential, initial step in breed identification. The classical description of breeds using the phenotype is based upon morphological characters such as coat color, horn, tails, body measurements and other specific visible traits. Phenotypic relationships, based upon the comparison of morphological characters, are used to estimate variations within breeds and distances between breeds, and are used to describe them in terms of the frequency of the most typical characteristics.