Ziwuling black goat multicharacter breeding (PRJCA047834)
Ziwuling black goat (ZBG) is the main breed of indigenous goat for meat, wool, and skin in northwest china. However, the population has faced a sharp decline in the past few decades, mainly due to the declining efficiency of goat farming, which has led to the reluctance of farmers to raise goats. Litter size (LS), horn or no horn (HN), wool color (WC), and body conformation (BC) traits are the four main economic indicators of goat culture, which have the potential to increase population growth rate. The aim of the study was to identify potential genomic regions associated with body conformation traits of ZBG using genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and to identify molecular markers that influence LS, HN, WC, and BC traits of goats for the improvement of genetic resources of goats.