Multivariate analysis of morphometric traits of Malkangiri pony - a heritage germplasm of Odisha.

The present study aimed to identify significant morphometric traits in Malkangiri ponies of Odisha through principal component analysis. The data were collected randomly from 200 ponies aged more than five years and 13 morphometric traits alongwith three indices were recorded. The mean height at wither, height at croup, body length, chest girth, punch girth, height at forearm, height at hock, fetlock to coronet, chest width, neck circumference, poll to wither, wither to croup and croup to head of the tail were 126.7 ± 0.39, 122.6 ± 0.29, 107.9 ± 0.2, 122 ± 0.31, 118.6 ± 0.46, 32.15 ± 0.33, 29.12 ± 0.45, 11.61 ± 0.04, 24.43 ± 0.2, 60.4 ± 0.18, 57.4 ± 0.19, 67.54 ± 0.25 and 28.56 ± 0.13 cm, respectively. The mean values for three indices, i.e., body index, length index and body ratio, were 88.49, 85.29 and 1.03, respectively. Phenotypic correlations among most of the morphometric traits were positive and significant. The correlation coefficient ranges from 0.9 to a minimum of - 0.26. Principal component analysis with varimax rotation extracted three principal components, collectively explaining 70.41% of the total variance. The first principal component accounted for the largest proportion of variance (50.57%), characterized by high loadings on height at wither (0.963), body length (0.917), chest girth (0.930), height at forearm (0.930), height at hock (0.885) and height at croup (0.766). The second principal component explained 10.71% of the variance and displayed a high loading on the distance between the croup to head of tail (0.828). Moreover, the third principal component accounted for 9.134% of the variance, represented by the distance from poll to wither (0.787). High communalities for traits in the first principal component underscored their significance in characterizing Malkangiri ponies.