7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, August 19-23, 2002, Montpellier, France

PHENOTYPIC CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CAMPEIRO , BRAZIL

A. Spritze1, C. McManus1, I. Chagas1, I. Lelis1, L. Cassiano1 and D. Costa2

1 FAV, Cx Postal 04508, Universidade De Brasília, Brasília, DF, 70910-900, Brazil 2 Associação Brasileira Dos Criadores Do Cavalo Campeiro, Curitibanos, SC, Brazil

INTRODUCTION When the Americas were conquered few domestic species existed. The Campeiro horse was thought to have originated from animals brought during the Spanish Expedition of Alvar Nuñes in March 1541 as well as animals from other Spanish expeditions. Approximately 200 years after these expeditions the existence of wild in the highlands of Santa Catarina State was registered (ABRACCC, nd). This horse is well adapted to long treks and often used in rodeos. The habitat of the Campeiro horse are the grasslands of Santa Catarina State, in the south of Brazil, which are predominated by grasses with a low percentage of legumes (Paim, 1983 ; Valls, 1986). The pastures are dominated by Aristida, Andropogon, Schizachyrium, Elyonrus and Trachypogon species, which are steadily being substituted by cultivated pastures such as Brachiaria spp. (Moraes et al., 1995). There are no scientific papers published on this breed of horse and little information exists on its characterization and use. The objective of this paper is to characterize the Campeiro Horse using the breed register.

MATERIAL AND METHODS Data was available on 498 horses registered by the Brazilian Association of Campeiro Horse Breeders. This included individual data on 15 linear traits (Shoulder Height (SH), Mid back height (MBH), Withers height (WH), Back height (BH), Head length (HL), Neck Length (NL), Back length (BL), Shoulder length (SL), Hip length (HiL), Body length (BoL), Head width (HW), Chest width (CW), Hip width (HiW), Chest circumference (CC), Cannon bone circumference (CBC)), space under horse (SUH), coat color, temperament and nine subjective traits taken at registration. Body indices and weight were calculated from Standard Formulae (Torres and Jardim, 1987) where Pectoral Index = WH/SUH; Dactyl-Thoracic Index = CBC/CC; Weight = CC3x80; Length Index = SH/BL; Body Index = BL/CC; Thorax Index = CW/BH; Conformation Index = CC2/BH; Work Index = CC2 x56/BH and Work Index2= CC2 x95/BH; Compact Index = Weight (kg)/BH(cm) and Compact Index2 = Weight (kg)/(BH(cm)- 100). Principal components were estimated by PRINCOMP/SAS (SAS, 1999).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 1 shows the summary of the registered Campeiro Horses. This is a small horse since the mean shoulder height is less than 1.50m (Torres and Jardim, 1987) but a small proportion of the horses may be considered medium sized (1.50-1.60m). It is usually well proportioned with little difference between the wither and shoulder height, a medium body index with the thorax height greater than the space under the body meaning it is a good , in agreement with its ratio height/length and conformation index. The Dactyl Thorax index shows that the horse is intermediary between light and light traction animals.

Session 05. Communication N° 05-21 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, August 19-23, 2002, Montpellier, France

Table 1. Summary of linear measures taken at registration on Campeiro Horses

Variable N Mean Std Minimum Maximum Cv Age at registration (yrs) 463 5.83 4.01 1.00 25.00 251.20 Shoulder Height (m) 487 1.44 0.03 1.32 1.53 7.92 Mid back height (m) 487 1.38 0.05 0.57 1.50 13.75 Withers height (m) 487 1.46 0.03 1.40 1.55 8.25 Back height (m) 482 0.62 0.06 0.36 1.58 34.48 Head length (m) 487 0.54 0.04 0.23 0.76 26.56 Neck Length (m) 487 0.67 0.05 0.52 0.79 25.19 Back length (m) 487 0.66 0.06 0.46 0.86 32.80 Shoulder length (m) 487 0.55 0.05 0.25 0.73 31.46 Hip length (m) 487 0.48 0.04 0.37 0.72 27.46 Body length (m) 486 1.47 0.06 1.15 1.68 13.79 Head width (m) 487 0.25 0.03 0.13 0.52 46.08 Chest width (m) 487 0.34 0.03 0.23 0.63 36.33 Hip width (m) 487 0.48 0.03 0.38 0.66 22.92 Chest circumference (m) 487 1.73 0.12 0.59 2.10 25.16 Cannon bone circumference (m) 486 0.18 0.01 0.13 0.22 21.83 Difference shoulder-withers (m) 487 -0.016 0.013 -0.090 0.070 79.26 Space below horse (m) 482 0.769 0.065 -0.180 1.020 8.39 Pectoral Index 482 0.784 0.445 -8.778 1.250 56.75 Dactyl-Thoracic Index 486 0.108 0.014 0.071 0.288 13.42 Weight (kg) 487 415.973 69.174 16.430 740.880 16.63 Length Index 486 1.019 0.036 0.799 1.167 3.58 Body Index 486 0.858 0.117 0.698 2.441 13.60 Thorax Index 487 0.547 0.069 0.208 1.000 9.82 Conformation Index 487 2.074 0.238 0.249 3.063 11.47 Work Index 487 116.129 13.317 13.924 171.500 11.47 Work Index 2 487 197.005 22.592 23.621 290.938 11.47 Compact Index 487 2.884 0.463 0.117 5.145 16.07 Compact Index 2 487 9.435 1.497 0.411 16.839 15.80

The horse can support a mean of 116kg weight at trot or gallop with 197kg the maximum weight at walking speed. The Compact index reveals that these animals can be used for light traction work. Coefficients of variation were between 7.92% for shoulder height and 46.08% for body length, much higher than those found in the Pantaneiro Horse (Miserani, 2001). The coat colour of the horse varies (Figure 1) but the main colours are , and Gray which account for 78% of the registered animals.

Session 05. Horse breeding Communication N° 05-21 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, August 19-23, 2002, Montpellier, France

Bay 140 Bay-Roan 120 100 Black 80 Dark Gray 60 40 Chestnut 20 Roan 0 Gray Others 1983 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998

Figure 2. Number of animals per year Figure 1. Coat colour in Campeiro Horses registered by the Brazilian Association of Campeiro Horse Breeders

Interest in registration of these horses was high in the first years of the Breeder’s Association (Figure 2) but in recent years few horses have been registered. There are a total of nine technicians in the Association but much is centered on a single technician, which may be affecting the success of the Association. 100 50 80 40 60 30 40 20 10 20 0 0 JMMJSN

1 3 5 7 9 111315172025 Month Age (Years)

Figure 3. Age at registration of Campeiro Figure 4. Distribution of Campeiro Horses Foalings throughout the year

The horses are registered from 1 year of age up to 25 years (Figure 3) with most registrations taking place when the horses are 3-5 years of age. The older animals were registered in the first years of the Association. Although the Campeiro Horse may foal all year round (Figure 4) the main foaling months are from September to January. In terms of the subjective conformation the head is described as good (32.52%), Medium (35.58%) to Regular (22.7%), with a rectilinear profile (88.34%) and a median (83.23%) position of the ears. The neck is regular (24.54%) to good (73.62%) with a strong (84.25%) to medium (13.91%) body and regular (76.89%) to good (21.47%) leg position. The walk is described as a march (97.55%) and the animals were in good health at registration (91%). According to the data the horse has a docile (90.8%) to active (5.32%) temperament. Table 2 shows the principal components for the 15 linear measurements taken at registration. The first component shows horses that generally if horses are large for one measure they have a tendency to be large for all. The second component describes animals that are long and of small stature or vice-versa. The other

Session 05. Horse breeding Communication N° 05-21 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production, August 19-23, 2002, Montpellier, France

components describe various different types of horses. Approximately 80% of the variation between the fifteen measures is described by eight principal components.

Table 2. Principal Components for linear traits in Campeiro Horses

Prin1 Prin2 Prin3 Prin4 Prin5 Prin6 Prin7 Shoulder Height 0.429 -0.133 -0.164 -0.265 -0.065 0.055 -0.042 Mid back height 0.391 -0.049 -0.280 -0.260 -0.081 0.045 -0.100 Withers height 0.420 -0.146 -0.184 -0.286 -0.065 0.078 0.004 Back height 0.170 -0.177 0.115 0.437 0.185 0.552 -0.460 Head length 0.143 0.435 0.214 -0.053 -0.053 0.439 0.379 Neck Length 0.191 0.527 -0.173 0.039 0.137 0.176 0.058 Back length 0.169 0.092 -0.278 0.566 -0.182 -0.149 0.032 Shoulder length 0.181 0.062 0.433 -0.212 -0.181 -0.187 -0.544 Hip length 0.256 0.262 -0.003 0.236 -0.133 -0.289 -0.185 Body length 0.263 -0.108 -0.260 0.191 0.209 -0.028 0.168 Head width 0.158 -0.121 0.429 0.067 -0.439 0.323 0.224 Chest width 0.176 0.355 0.283 -0.157 0.424 -0.235 0.070 Hip width 0.275 0.073 0.269 0.297 -0.140 -0.343 0.072 Chest circumference 0.188 -0.253 0.256 0.079 0.639 0.002 0.047 Cannon bone circumference 0.195 -0.396 0.193 0.071 -0.038 -0.204 0.456 Cumulated proportion 0.270 0.388 0.487 0.573 0.636 0.691 0.744 Proportion 0.270 0.118 0.099 0.085 0.064 0.054 0.053

CONCLUSION The Campeiro horse is a small to medium sized animal which may foal all year round but these are concentrated in the last few months of the year. Results show that the Campeiro Horse has relatively high variance coefficients for most conformation traits thereby selection for these traits show a response. The lack of recent registrations in the association may mean that this genetic resource may once again become threatened by extinction or crossbreeding.

REFERENCES ABRACCC, sd Campeiro, O marchador das araucárias, Pamphlet, 4p. Miserani, M. (2001) Masters Dissertation, University of Brasilia, Brazil Moraes, A., Maraschin, G.E. and Nabinger, C. (1995) In “XXXII Reunião Anual da Sociedade Brasileira de Zootecnia”, p. 147-200, Brasília, DF. Paim, N.R. (1983) In “Congresso Brasileiro de Forragens e Pastagens Nativas”, p.27, Olinda, PE. Torres, A.P. and Jardim W.R. (1987) “Criação do Cavalo e Outros Eqüinos”, Nobel, SP. Valls, J.F.M. In: Moura, J.C. de (ed) Simpósio sobre Produção Animal 3., Campo Grande, MS, Fundação Cargill.

Session 05. Horse breeding Communication N° 05-21