A survey on morphological traits of Basset Hound dogs raised in Italy

The aim of the present work was to report the first results of a survey on morphological traits of Basset Hound dogs reared in Italy, as a part of a more comprehensive study whose objective is to identify morpho-functional attributes having the greatest potential of being genetically improved. Body measures were taken from 48 adult (mean age 2.78±1.71 years) Basset Hound dogs (24 males and 24 females). The animals belonged to five different farms. For each animal, the following biometrical measurements were considered: withers height, chest height, chest depth, trunk length, rump length, ischium width of the rump, ear and nose length, chest and cannon circumference. ANOVA was used to test the differences between males and females for morphological measurements (sex and farm as fixed factors and age at measurements as covariate). A simple correlation method was thus applied to the least square means. No significant differences were observed among farms and between sexes. The average ...