Characterization of mutton type indigenous sheep of Puri district in Odisha

Characterization of 446 indigenous sheep of Puri district in Odisha distributed over five blocks showed that these animals are of medium size with an average adult body weight of 26.02±0.11 kg in males and 23.02±0.08 kg in females. The average body length, height at withers and heart girth were 55.52±0.18 60.22±0.29 and 68.19 ±0.27 cm in males and 51.86±0.16, 56.60±0.24 and 63.67±0.30 cm in females respectively. The heritability estimates of conformation traits were found to be medium to high in most of the cases and medium to high correlation was observed between body length and other morphometric traits both at genetic and phenotypic level.