PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS (PCA) OF BODY MEASUREMENTS IN MALE SWAMP BUFFALO (Bubalus bubalis) OF INDONESIA

This study was carried out to determine principal component analysis (PCA) in 18 morphometrics of male swamp buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) in the Central Java Province, Indonesia. A total of 44 animals were used in this study and separated into two groups of age i.e. 2PPI (2.0 - 3.5 years ages) with 24 animals and 3PPI (3.5 - 4.0 years age) with 20 animals. This study showed  that five principal components (PC) of morphometric traits were found in both group and explained about 70% of the total variance in each ages group. Six morphometrics: ossa vertebrae cervicale length (OVCL), ossa vertebrae thoracic length (OVTL), os humerus length (OHL), ossa radius ulna length (ORUL), os femoris length (OFL), ossa tibia-fibula length (OTFL) were described as the first component (PC1) for 2PPI animals. Meanwhile, four morphometrics: os metatarsals length (OML), withers height (WH), chest depth (CD), hip height (HH) were showed as the PC1 for 2PPI animals. It was concluded that the general performance of WH, CD, HH can be used as morphometric selection criteria for swamp buffalo bulls at 3-4 years of age.