ADVANCE RESEARCH JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY DISCOVERIES ISSN : 2456-1045 VOL.36 I ISSUE-1 I CHAPTER-3 PUBLISHER : INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOUNDATION (IJF) Phenotypic variability and characterization of the body conformation of Brazilian Sport Horse, Breton Postier and Brazilian Donkey equine breeds *Leticia Camargo da Costa1, Elaine Cristina Piffer Gonçalves2, *Anita Schmidek3 1Centro Universitário da Fundação Educacional de Barretos, Barretos, SP, Brazil 2,3 Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios, Colina, SP, Brazil ABSTRACT This study aimed to characterize morphologically equines of the Brazilian Sport Horse (BSH), Breton Postier (BP) and Brazilian Donkey (BD) breeds, in order to discriminate morphological patterns within and between herds, classifying horses according to body indices. Hipometer, ruler angles and tape measure were used to register linear and angular body measurements in the animals. It was identified evidence of different morphological patterns (P<0,05) between and within the evaluated breeds. The animals of the BSH breed were mostly classified as mediolineus shape, the BD breed as longilineus, and BP breed as brevilineus shape. Keywords : equines, measures, body measurements, morphology ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE ISSN : 2456-1045 (Online) I. INTRODUCTION (ICV-AGS/Impact Value): 72.30 (GIF) Impact Factor: 5.188 Of the world's equine population, 57% are located in Publishing Copyright @ International Journal Foundation America, with the Brazilian population stated as the fourth Journal Code: ARJMD/AGS/V-36.0/I-1/C-3/APRIL-2019 largest in the world, estimated at around 7,986,023 heads Category : AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE (FAO, 2010). Although businesses involving the breeding Volume : 36.0/Chapter- 3/Issue -1 (APRIL-2019) and service of equines represent a prominent position in Journal Website: www.journalresearchijf.com the national scope, since mobilizes annually high values of Paper Received: 22.04.2019 money and generates millions of direct and indirect jobs in Paper Accepted: 01.05.2019 Brazil, the resemblance of horse production is still distorted Date of Publication: 10-05-2019 and biased, demanding acknowledgement of the importance of the equideoculture chain (ESALQ, 2006). Page: 13-19 The identification of variability in body shape characteristics, as well as the identification of which of these characteristics are more favourable to sport performances and for policing horses, besides generating Name of the Corresponding author: technical support for the choice of horses suitable for sport Anita Schmidek * and policing, are also intended to generate subsidies for the structuring of a breeding program for equines. Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios, Colina, SP, Brazil In a breeding system of equine of pure breeds, such as the herd of the Polo Regional da Alta Mogiana, Colina, CITATION OF THE ARTICLE SP, Brazil, which harbors pure herds of Brazilian Sport Horse (BSH), Breton Postier (BP) and Brazilian Donkey Costa LCD, Gonçalves ECP, (BD), the morphological characterization of these breeds Schmidek A; (2019) Phenotypic could allow to discriminate morphological patterns within variability and characterization of the and between the herds, thus identifying the degree of body conformation of Brazilian Sport phenotypic variability and comparing the suitability of the Horse, Breton Postier and Brazilian evaluated animals in relation to the existing breeding Donkey equine breeds; Advance patterns (KOMOSA et al., 2013). Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Discoveries; 36(1) pp. 13-19 Open access, Peer-reviewed and Indexed international journal (www.journalresearchijf.com) 13 ADVANCE RESEARCH JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY DISCOVERIES ISSN : 2456-1045 (ONLINE) The general objective was to characterize joint to the lateral aspect of the proximal interphalangeal morphologically equines from the Brazilian Sport Horse, joint of the left thoracic; Breton Postier and Brazilian Donkey breeds, belonging to Leg length - distance from the medial-lateral point the flock of the Polo Regional da Alta Mogiana, and, of the femorotibial to the lateral-medial third of the tarsal specifically, aimed to discriminate morphological patterns joint; within and between the breeds, classifying the equines according to their indexes. Rear cannon bone length - distance from the medial-lateral third of the tarsal joint to the middle third of the lateral aspect of the metatarsophalangeal joint of the II. MATERIALS AND METHODS pelvic limb; The evaluations were carried out at the Polo Regional da Alta Mogiana Research Station, located in Rear pastern length - distance from the middle Colina, São Paulo State, Brazil. third of the lateral side of the metatarsophalangeal joint to the lateral side of the proximal interphalangeal joint of the left pelvic limb; Body measurements were collected on 204 equines. Of these, 158 were of the Brazilian Sport Horse Breed, 20 Forearm perimeter - circumference measurement in Breton Postier breed, 22 Brazilian Donkey breed. Overall, the median region of the ulnar radius; 380 body measurements were collected at the ages: at birth, weakly for the first month of age, monthly until the sixth Carpal perimeter - a measure of circumference in the month of age, and then with 12, 24, 30 and 36 or more median region of the carpus; months of age. Metacarpal perimeter - a measure of the The linear and angular measures, relevant in the circumference in the medial region of the metacarpal bones; corresponding references, were collected according to previously used methodologies (CABRAL et al., 2004a; Thoracic perimeter - a measure of the circumference PINTO et al., 2005; GODOI et al., 2013), considering the in the narrower portion of the thorax, caudally at the following measures, with respective descriptions: withers, in the dorsal portion of the last thoracic vertebrae and ventrally in the caudal third of the sternum; Height at the withers -the vertical distance from Smaller trunk - the distance between the greater the highest point of the interscapular region, defined by the tuber of the humerus and the coxal tuber of the ileum; spinous processes of the 5th and 6th thoracic vertebra, to the ground; Greater trunk - the distance between the greater tuber of the humerus and the ischiatic tuberosity; Height at the rump - vertical distance from the highest point on the sacral tuberosity to the ground; Calcaneus height - distance from the distal prominence of the calcaneus to the ground; Distance olecranon-ground - the vertical distance from the tuberosity of the olecranon to the ground; The angular measurements considered are defined Neck length - the linear distance between the by the intersection of lines based on anatomical points, as cranial portion of the lateral side of the atlas wing and the described by Godoi et al. (2013): midpoint of the cranial border of the scapula; Shoulder-arm angle - the caudal angle formed by the Distance shoulder-fetlock - distance from the intersection of the line between the dorsal portion in the central area of the scapulohumeral joint to the middle third cartilage of the scapula and the central area of the of the lateral face of the metacarpophalangeal joint of the scapulohumeral joint with the line between the central thoracic limb; areas of the scapulohumeral and humeral-radial joints; Forearm length - distance from the central area of Humeral radial angle - the cranial angle formed by the humeroradial joint to the lateral third of the carpal joint; the intersection of the line between the central area of the scapulohumeral joint and the central area of the humeral Arm length - the distance between the outer radial joint with the line between the central area of the tuberosity of the humerus and the tuberosity of the humeral radial joint and the lateral middle third of the olecranon; carpal joint; Front pastern length - distance from the lateral Metacarpophalangeal angle - cranial angle formed mid-third of the carpal joint to the middle third of the by the intersection of the line between the lateral middle lateral side of the metacarpophalangeal joint of the thoracic third of the carpal joint and the point of the middle third of limb; the lateral face of the metacarpophalangeal joint with the Front cannon bone length- distance from the line between the point of the middle third of the lateral face middle third of the lateral side of the metacarpophalangeal Open access, Peer-reviewed and Indexed international journal (www.journalresearchijf.com) 14 ADVANCE RESEARCH JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY DISCOVERIES ISSN : 2456-1045 (ONLINE) of the metacarpophalangeal joint and the lateral face of the Scapula index - the ratio between arm length proximal interphalangeal joint of the left thoracic; (distance between the outer tuberosity of the humerus and Scapula-ground angle - the caudal angle formed by the tuberosity of the olecranon) and height at the withers; the intersection of the line between the dorsal portion in the Lower trunk index - the ratio between the distance cartilage of the scapula and the central area of the between the outer tuberosity of the humerus and the coxal scapulohumeral joint with the line of the horizontal plane; tuberosity of the ileum and height at the withers; Coxal-ground angle - the cranial angle formed by the intersection of the line between the ventral midpoint of the Major trunk index - the ratio between the distance lateral face of the coxal tuberosity and the medial region of between the outer tuberosity of the humerus and the ischial