Analysis on selective breeding effect of Oula sheep breed in Qinghai area

In order to evaluate the selective breeding effect of Oula sheep breed in Qinghai area in recent years, the data of body type traits of Oula sheep at different ages measured from 2016 to 2019 were collected in the experiment. There were a total of 1 889 Oula sheep, including 1 447 8-month-old（juvenile）, 186 18-month-old（growing）, and 256 36-month（adult） Oula sheep. One-Way ANOVA was used to analyze the changes in body weight and body size phenotype; Games Howell test was used to compare the two groups to evaluate the selective bree-ding effect of Oula sheep breed. The results showed that under the selection and improvement in the past 4 years, the weight, height, length and chest circumference traits of Oula sheep in juvenile period in 2019 were（40.97±7.62） kg,（73.53±5.10） cm,（74.34±5.53） cm and（88.50±7.02） cm, respectively; compared with 2016, the average increase was 1.38 kg, 2.62 cm, 1.75 cm, 1.03 cm, and the average increasing percentage was 3.73%, 3.88%, 2.63% and 1.23%. The weight, height, length and chest circumference traits of Oula sheep in growing age in 2019 were（62.58±8.61） kg,（81.69±6.76） cm,（81.44±6.22） cm and（103.74±6.53） cm, respectively; compared with 2016, the average increase was 5.89 kg, 5.27 cm, 5.48 cm, 5.89 cm, and the average increasing percentage was 9.64%, 7.09%, 7.46%, 6.02%. The weight, height, length and chest circumference traits of Oula sheep in adult age in 2019 were（82.93±7.07） kg,（89.14±7.13） cm,（85.00±4.31） cm and（113.86±5.55） cm, respectively; compared with 2016, the average increase was 2.47 kg, 4.00 cm, 1.93 cm, 4.27 cm, and the average increasing percentage was 3.06%, 5.04%, 2.40%, 4.03%. The results suggested that after years of selective breeding of this breed, the phenotype of the Oula sheep population was better, and the body weight, body height, body length and chest circumference of the population at each stage had been improved to varying degrees. Among them, the body condition of Oula sheep improved most obviously during the growing period, and the overall selective breeding effect was remarkable.