ExteriorORIGINAL Characteristics SCIENTIFIC PAPER of the breed population of „Posavac“ bred in the region of Eastern Serbia

Exterior characteristics of the population of „Posavac“ bred in the region of Eastern Serbia

Vladan DJERMANOVIC1, Sreten MITROVIC1, Natasa DJORDJEVIC2 1University of Belgrade, Faculty of Agriculture, Nemanjina 6, 1080 Zemun, Serbia (e-mail: [email protected]) 2Association „Agroprojekt Timok“, 19000 Zajecar, Serbia

Abstract The Horse Breed „Posavac“ is bred greatly in and , while significantly less in Serbia. In Eastern Serbia, the Region of Timocka Krajina, there are more than 150 heads of the type „Posavac“, i.e. the Timok Region Cold-blooded Horse, of the type Posavac, out of which 120 heads registered in the Registrtaion Book. This type of horse originates from the vast area in Croatia, covering the region of Primorsko-goranska Zupanija to the Region of Vukovarsko- sremska Zupanija. The researches include body measures of a horse population of this type, 34 mares and 11 stallions, bred in the Region of Timocka Krajina. The aim of the study was to determine seven basic body measures of the breed Posavac, including the body mass, withers height, breast circumference, breast depth, breast width, croup width and tibia circumference. To perceive its general appearance better, we determined the coefficients of phenotype correlations of the basic body measures. The average body mass amounted 565.59 kg (♀) and 665.45 kg (♂), the withers height 150.44 cm (♀) and 151.27 cm (♂), breast circumference 207.09 cm (♀) and 211.55 cm (♂), breast depth 70.71cm, breast width 50.03 cm, croup width 55.44 cm and tibia circumference 21.62 cm and 22.55 cm. Obtained variables for certain body measures point to the fact that the exterior properties of the studied are pretty equal. Since the number of horses is low, the gentic material is heterogenous, insufficiently investigated and non-consolidated. The pheotype correlation of body measures is positive and rather great in relation to different levels of significance.

Key words: Cold-blooded horses, type, body measures, phenotype correlation

Introduction Historically, due to the geographic and ecological (climate) conditions, which include the way of nutrition as well, within the horse breed of „Posavac“, in relation to the exterior properties, there have been developed a few types of Posavac, different in relation to the body measures. Different types of the Posavac horse breed belong to the type of heavy, pack horses easily-adaptable to the climate in all conditions, particularly along the basins of great rivers. Besides for transport, it is also used in agriculture for work on fields and in forests, riding, both recreational and therapeutic, and especially in production of good-quality horsemeat. Demand for horsemeat has become increasingly great and it is more often consumed worldwide. The regions where horses have been bred traditionally and their meat used for food are no longer of local character (Teodorovic et al., 1996). That is why Gajic et al. (1996), Mitrovic and Grubic (2003) consider that breeding horses for fattening and meat production, primarily because of its nutritive and diet reasons, are economically prospective. That is why the aim of this study was to determine seven body measures (the body mass, withers height, breast circumference, breast depth, breast width, croup width and tibia circumference) of the cold blooded horses bred in the vicinity of the town of Zajecar. To perceive its general appearance better, we determined the coefficients of phenotype correlations of the basic body measures.

Proceedings . 47th Croatian and 7th International Symposium on Agriculture . Opatija . Croatia (669–673)

Section 7 . Animal Husbandry 669 Vladan DJERMANOVIC, Sreten MITROVIC, Natasa DJORDJEVIC

Material and methods Data were collected from more than thirty horse breeders in the vicinity of the town of Zajecar. The research included the Timok cold-blooded horses of the Posavac type which had already been registered in the Registry Book of the Association „Agroprojekt Timok Zajecar“. The body measures belong to 45 heads, i.e. 34 mares and 11 stallions. The analysis does not involve their offspring. We used the Lydthin measuring stick and mesuring tape for measuring seven body measures of each head, including the body mass (BM), withers height (WH), breast circumference (BC), breast depth (BD), breast width (BW), croup width (CW) and tibia circumference (TC). The results of measuring were registered in the Registry Lists containing the basic data about a horse, such as: name of the head, registration number, sex, breed type, date of foaling, age, origin, name of the owner and place, description of horse colours and marks on the head and legs. Researched heads are bred in hilly-mountaneous areas of Eastern Serbia, in accordance to the organic animal production system. The heads are kept free on pastures enclosed by electric fence most of a year, that is, from March to November, while they spend winters in buildings purposefully built for individual horses’ accommodation. Accordingly, horse nutrition and feeding involve grazing with addition of oats and maize in the form of concentrated horse food, as well as minerals, while in winter it is good-quality meadow hay, portions of concentrated food and addition of minerals. The basic data processing was done by application of the computer programme Stat. Soft., Inc. (2003) STATISTICA (data analysis software system), version 6, by application of convenient variation-statistics methods, while phenotype correlations among measured body indices were calculated by application of appropriate formula for large samples.

Results and discussion Many countries have the problem of oversized number of horses on pastures, while in Serbia, the number of horses has been constantly decreasing every year. The pasture resources in Serbia are not sufficiently used up although it is only one of the possibilities to breed horses economically and produce horsemeat ecologically, especially cold-blooded horses of various types. Additionally, the EU experts hold that one of possible strategies of cattle breeding production, specifically , is development of services in agro- tourism, then sport and recreational activities involving horses. Some experts think that a great number of farmers could realize greater profit if only they pre-orientated horse-breeding production instead of breeding and using horses in a traditional way. It is the reason why, through this study, we wished to point to the possibility and fact that breeding cold-blooded Timok Region Horse of the type Posavac, together with appropriate work on breeding and selection, can be spread and, therefore, genetically consolidated. It would also mean developing the type of horse, the Timok Cold-blooded Horse, which would be significant for both Eastern Serbia and the whole country, as well. Exterior properties of the Timok Region Cold-blooded Horse, the type of Posavac, of the researched heads, are similar to various types of horses bred in the region of Posavina. The trunk is compact and cylindrical. The head is sligthly smaller than the one at the Croatian Cold-blooded Horse, with wide forehead, well-tied to the neck, of mildly convex profile, with large and well-done nostrils. The neck is prolonged with the upper line in an arch. The breast are deep and wide, the back wide and strong. The croup are long, wide, pretty muscular, slightly down-cast and significantly cleft. The forelegs are of regular posture, firm with clearly expressed joints and ligaments, with short tibiae, the cannon bones overgrown with mid-long hairs. There are all variants of colours of the bayhorse, black-horse, sorrel horse and dapple grey horse with small marks on the head and legs, or without them. The tail and the mane are overgrown with rather long and loose hairs. Its temperament is calm, good-natured, obediant while working. It is also pretty resistant, easily adaptable to different climates, non-demanding with food, early matured, of good fertility and mares giving much milk after foaling. The following researchers have dealt with estimating the extreior or body measures of the Posavac: Bencevic (1950), Romic (1965; 1975), Kovac (1994), Ivankovic and Caput (2004), Paprika and Ivankovic (2005), Cacic et al. (2006), Ivankovic and Ramljak (2006) and they found insignificant differences in certain body measures depending on the type of the Posavac (Table 1). Their results were used to compare obtained body measures with those of the Cold-blooded Horse, the Posavina Horse Type „Posavac“ breed in the vicinity of the town of Zajecar.

670 47th Croatian and 7th International Symposium on Agriculture Exterior Characteristics of the horse breed population of „Posavac“ bred in the region of Eastern Serbia

The Table 1 shows the basic body measures of the horse population of the Cold-blooded Horse, the type Posavac, obtained by a group of researchers. Obtained body measures of the Timok Region Cold-blooded Hors, Posavina Horse Type (Table 2) are pretty similar to those found by Kovac (1994) – withers height, breast circumference and tibia circumference, and Romic (1975) – breast depth, breast width and croup width.

Table 1. Basic body measures of the Cold-blooded Horse of the Posavina Type, given by stated researchers Horse Type W.H. B.C. B.D. B.W. C.W. T.C. Source 1 145.85 166.25 - - - 18.06 Bencevic, 1950. 2 (♂) 138.04 153.66 64.26 37.20 44.83 18.52 Romic, 1965. 2 (♀) 136.30 159.85 63.05 34.38 45.40 17.64 3.1. (♂) 156.20 217.10 76.56 55.10 57.32 24.17 3.1. (♀) 153.37 202.84 74.28 50.04 55.85 23.26 3.2. (♂) 153.34 204.10 72.41 54.50 58.73 23.71 ♀ 3.2. ( ) 151.32 194.23 70.64 49.80 58.45 22.57 Romic, 1975. 3.3. (♂) 149.66 196.02 70.47 52.93 56.92 22.58 3.3. (♀) 147.89 109.06 69.80 48.65 56.55 21.57 2 (♂) 150 210 76-78 56 64 22-23 Kovac, 1994. 2 (♂) 143.53 199.99 71.19 50.38 56.21 21.90 Ivankovic and Caput, 2 (♀) 140.85 190.18 69.14 48.33 54.53 20.94 2004. 4 (♂) 146.86 208.43 75.57 55.93 53.79 22.10 Paprika and 4 (♀) 142.31 190.02 70.92 49.26 53.20 20.76 Ivankovic, 2005. 1 – Slavonija and Posavina Horse; 2 - Posavina Horse; 3 – Croatian Cold-blooded; 3.1. – Podravsko-Medjumurski type, 3.2. – Slavonija Type, 3.3. – Posavina Type; 4 – Posavina Horse from the area of the Odra and Lonja Fields.

Table 2. Average values and variability of body measures of both sexes of the Posavina Horse Mares (n = 34) Stallions (n = 11) Body measures S C.V. S C.V. x x Body mass, kg 565.59 48.63 8.60 665.45 41.80 6.28 Withers height, cm 150.44 2.62 1.74 151.27 2.28 2.00 Breast circumference, cm 207.09 6.26 3.02 211.55 6.55 3.10 Breast depth, cm 70.71 1.76 2.49 - - - Breast width, cm 50.03 2.93 5.86 - - - Croup width, cm 55.44 5.66 10.21 - - - Tibia circumference, cm 21.62 1.09 5.04 22.55 0.69 3.06

x – Mean of Value; S – Standard Deviation; C.V. – Coefficient of Variation

The data from the Table 2 show that the average body mass of female heads amounted 565.59 kg, and of male heads 665.45 kg. On the basis of this, it can be concluded that, relating to the body mass, in comparison with different types of cold-blooded horses, the analyzed ones have slightly smaller average body mass. Moreover, the absolute and relative variations of body mass measures were slightly more prominent at mares than at stallions. Researched heads were more harmonized relating to the withers height, so that the coefficient variation value was pretty low (♀ - 1.74; ♂ - 2.00). In comparison to stallions, the mares had lower breast circumference for 4.46 cm (207.09 cm – 211.55 cm). The data from Table 2 show also that the average breast depth at mares was 70.71 cm, breast width 50.03 cm and croup width 55.44 cm; we should point out here that the greatest deviation was at the croup width, the coefficient variation amounting 10.21%. Nutrition, age, number of foaling and alike influenced most on such high variability referring the croup width. Obtained values of the tibia circumference at mares – 21.62 cm, and at stallions – 22.55 cm are, averagely for both sexes, almost identical with the results obtained by Romić (1979) who determined average values of the tibia circumference at mares and stallions of the Croatian Cold-blooded Horse, type – Posavina, amounting 21.57 cm and 22.58 cm. Since some body measures at stallions (breast depth, breast width and croup width) were not determined, the coefficients of phenotype correlation were calculated for mares, while the coefficients of the rest of body

Section 7 . Animal Husbandry 671 Vladan DJERMANOVIC, Sreten MITROVIC, Natasa DJORDJEVIC

measures (body mass, withers height, breast circumference and tibia circumference) were found for both stallions and mares.

Table 3. Correlation among body measures of the Cold-blooded Timok Horse, Posavac type Body measures B.M. B.C. B.D. B.W. C.W. T.C. B.M. 1.00 - - - - - W.H. 0.597*** 1.00 - - - - B.C. 0.712*** 0.593*** 1.00 - - - B.D. 0.714*** 0.618*** 0.665*** 1.00 - - B.W. 0.513** 0.650*** 0.505** 0.401* 1.00 - C.W. 0.545*** 0.494** 0.606*** 0.633*** 0.641*** 1.00 T.C. 0.631*** 0.433** 0.713*** 0.558*** 0.382* 0.549*** ***P<0.001; **P<0.01; *P<0.05.

The data from the Table 3 show positive coefficients of phenotype correlation among all measures. For most measured parameters, obtained coefficients of phenotype correlation are statistically significant on the level of P<0.001. However, the correlation between the body mass and breast width, the withers height and croup width, and the withers height and tibia circumference is statistically significant on the level of P<0.01, while between the breast depth and breast width, as well as the breast width and tibia circumference, it was confirmed the correlation on the level P<0.05.

Conclusion Breeding horses for meat production is definitely economically justified not only due to increasing quantities of horse meat for human nourishment but also to exporting horse meat and meat products. This is only one of the reasons why greater attention should be paid to horse breeding, including also tendency to increase the number of the horse breed Posavac, as well as to enable breeding and selection measures to be conducted, which would improve breeding of the the Cold-blooded Timok Horse of the Posavac type. According to the above correlation coefficients, it is possible to conclude what type of horse it is about, as well as to give directions for further steps to be undertaken, and, if possible, creation of the Timok Region Cold-blooded Horse Breed. Obtained values of basic body measures partly differ from the results of the authors who also dealt with exterior characteristics of different types of cold-blooded horses. It is quite reasonable since the number of heads is rather modest and obtained from different parts of the country, which, accordingly, resulted in the fact that the standardization of this type of horse has not been done yet. Obtained results can also serve as basis for further work on improving this breed (type) of horse, creation of new more productive type (line), and the possibility to increase the number of heads of this breed in Serbia. To achieve this, it is necessary to research greater population of horses, determine directions of work on breeding and selection, and observe other production and productivity characteristics of all categories, including heads ready for fertilization, pregnant meres, working horses and offspring.

References Bencevic Z. (1950). Slavonian-Posavina horse. Stočarstvo 4:188–197. Cacic M., Kolaric S., Korabi N., Mladjenovic M., Tadic D., Pavan J., Baban M., Ivankovic A. (2006). Breeding systematization of autochtonous horse breed Croatia posavac. Stočarstvo 60:25–29. Gajic Z., Beslin R., Milic M., Jastsenjski S., Adzic N., Rankovic M. (1996). Development of horse breeding program of Yougoslavia. "Development of horse breeding program of Yougoslavia", 5– 13, Zobnatica. Ivankovic A., Caput P. (2004). Exterior features of Croatian autochtonus cold-blooded horse breeds. Stočarstvo 58:15–36. Ivankovic A., Ramljak J. (2006). Linear confirmation traits of the autochtonous horse breeds in Croatia. Stočarstvo 60. 53–57. Kovac M. (1994). Croatian Posavac. Agricultural Center of Croatia, Zagreb. Mitrovic S., Grubic G. (2003). Breeding and feeding horse. Faculty of Agriculture Zemun – Beograd.

672 47th Croatian and 7th International Symposium on Agriculture Exterior Characteristics of the horse breed population of „Posavac“ bred in the region of Eastern Serbia

Paprika S., Ivankovic A. (2005). Exterior features of the Posavina horse from the Odra and Lonja field. Stočarstvo 59:91-119. Romic S. (1965). Posavina horse. Agricultural science review, 20:1–17. Romic S. (1975). Capacity growth and production traits of Croatian cold-blood. Praxis Veterinaria 2:87-99. SAS (2003). Data analysis software system, Version 6. Package program, User's Guide, Stat. Soft. Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA. Teodorovic V., Baltic M., Tadic I. (1996). Production and processing of horse meat. "Development of horse breeding program of Yougoslavia", 37–42, Zobnatica. sa2012_0706

Section 7 . Animal Husbandry 673