ASSESSING EFFECTIVE POPULATION SIZE AND RATE OF INBREEDING IN BUNAJI CATTLE UNDER PASTORAL PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Résumé

The present study was carried out to assess herd structure, effective population size and rate of inbreeding among white Fulani bunaji cattle herd managed by pastoralist in the Benue basin of Nasarawa and Benue states. Forty three caitle herds belonging to three pastoralist group agro-pastoralist, pastoralist and transhumant nomads were considered for the study. Flock composition was evaluated for the total population under consideration while, effective population size and inbreeding rate of select herds were computed. Herd size recorded were between 4144.12, 5245.32 and 58+3.21 for the agro-pastoralist, transhumance and Pastoralist nomads respectively. Breeding male to female ratio were 0.22, 0.24 and 0.26 while the coefficient of inbreeding or inbreeding rate per generation was 0.022, 0.014 and 0.017 of selected population for the respective production system. This seemed to be less than the maximum acceptable level. However, the prevalence of inbreeding was inhabitable because of the uncontrolled mating practice. Itcan be concluded that low inbreeding rate indicate that the breed is not at risk and no difference existed in small population genetic parameter between the various pastoral systems.