Morphometric Measurements of Zom Lambs

Abstract

This study aims to determine the weight and certain morphometric traits of Zom lambs raised in the Şanlıurfa Central-Viranşehir-Siverek region during specific growth periods from birth onward, and to evaluate the differences among herds. The study was conducted using lambs born to four different herds (F1, F2, F3, and F4) of Zom sheep raised in different farms. Morphometric measurements were taken at birth and monthly over a five-month period following birth. After testing the data for normality and homogeneity of variances, two-way repeated measures ANOVA was used for statistical analysis. The Tukey HSD test was employed to determine significant differences between groups. The average birth weight was 4.28 ± 0.06 kg for male lambs and 3.56 ± 0.06 kg for female lambs, indicating a statistically significant difference between sexes (P <0.001). Similarly, body measurements such as withers height, rump height, chest girth, and cannon bone circumference were consistently higher in male lambs compared to females across all periods (P <0.05). Significant differences were also observed among the different herds (F1–F4) in many body measurements from birth to the fifth month. In particular, herds F3 and F4 generally exhibited superior growth performance, while herds F1 and F2 had lower values in terms of both weight and morphological measurements. Statistically significant differences in morphometric traits were observed among Zom lamb herds. These differences reflect the influence of environmental conditions and are important for characterizing the morphological features of Zom sheep and for developing herd-based breeding strategies. In addition, there is a need to raise Zom sheep under similar environmental conditions to reveal the effect of genetic structure on these characteristics.