VARIABILITY OF BODY DEVELOPMENT TRAITS IN BUSHA COWS

Abstract

Busha is small body native breed. It is found where the economic conditions are modest, and agriculture extensive. The intensification of livestock production, and the introduction of more productive, specialized breeds, caused diminished interest in growing Busha. Thus, Busha, as cattle oftriple productive properties, is largely suppressed, so that today we can rarely find examples of the pure breed. To protect specific geno-fund of this breed, the assessment of the level of endangerment of Busha population was carried out, which pointed to the risk status of the population and the necessity of the implementation of conservation programs. The paper analyzes the characteristics of physical development 138 Busha cows in the area of Pirot District, and the influence of non-genetic factors (farm, calving year, calving season) on the variability of traits. The average body weight of Busha cows in the area of Pirot District was 226.07 kg, height at withers 104.33 cm, rump height 104.12 cm,pelvis width 32.52 cm, chest depth 53.97 cm, chest circumference 130.48 cm and body length 119.67 cm. The analysis of the impact of non-genetic factors, showed a highly significant effect (p <0.01) of the farm on all the traits except the width of the pelvis, year of calving exerted a significant effect (p <0.01) on all traits of body development, whereas the calving season exerted no influence (p> 0.05) on any of the seven traits that have been studied.