~ 1427 ~ International Journal of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandry 2024; 9(1): 1427-1432 ISSN: 2456-2912 VET 2024; 9(1): 1427-1432 © 2024 VET www.veterinarypaper.com Received: 10-12-2023 Accepted: 08-01-2024 VK Parmar Assistant Director, Department of Animal Husbandry, Intensive Cattle Development Project, Sector-11, Government of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India Maitri J Patel Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Kamdhenu University, Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat, India Hardi N Patel M.V.Sc. Scholar, Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Kamdhenu University, Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat, India MM Chudasma Assistant Professor, Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Kamdhenu University, Rajpur, Himmatnagar, Gujarat, India NH Joshi Assistant Professor, Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Kamdhenu University, Rajpur, Himmatnagar, Gujarat, India KB Patel Professor, Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Kamdhenu University, Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat, India Corresponding Author: Maitri J Patel Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Kamdhenu University, Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat, India Radiographic assessment of growth of pelvic limb bones and age estimation in fetuses of goat (Capra hircus) VK Parmar, Maitri J Patel, Hardi N Patel, MM Chudasma, NH Joshi and KB Patel Abstract The present work was carried out on radiographs of previous study on non-descript goat fetuses, irrespective of sex and multiples. The osteometric parameters viz. length and width of primary ossification centers of ilium, ischium, femur, tibia and large metatarsus were recorded from radiographs and statistically analyzed to assess age associated growth and to evolve age prediction formulae in the goat fetuses. The tibia maintained its position as the longest bone of pelvic limb in all the age groups of prenatal life. The diaphyseal length of tibia showed the highest growth rate (0.89 mm/day), followed by femur (0.76 mm/day) and large metatarsus (0.62 mm/day). About 50-60% growth of full-term length and width of different bones of pelvic limb were completed in group-V (91 to 105 days). The correlation coefficients between various bone measurements and fetal age were found very high (r > 0.9). Among the simple linear regression equations formulated for prediction of fetal age; the length of femur and tibia gave 98 per cent predictability (R 2 ) indicating them as reliable bone measurements for estimation of age in goat fetuses. Keywords: Radiography, bone, foetus, age, goat 1. Introduction The estimation of fetal age at death in the domestic ruminants is a fundamental procedure in different circumstances including clinical, animal husbandry, biomedical research, forensic, veterolegal and archaeological context. Various authors described age estimation of fetuses at death by species specific equation derived from fetal biometry and time of appearance of various external developmental horizons (McGeady et al., 2006; Parmar et al., 2009a; Njaa, 2012; Rao and Ramayya, 2013; Singh, 2017; Prabhakar and Farooqui, 2022) [12, 15, 16, 18, 20, 25] . In addition, assessment of growth and development of the bone and teeth is also utilized as tool to estimate fetal age, as bone and teeth are quite resistant to decomposition and easily detected in fetal remain (Carneiro et al. 2013) [1] . Due to heavy mineralization at the site ossification, the developing bones can be easily detected in fetuses through radiography. In putrefied fetuses, the ossification centers of the bones give valuable information (Gjesdal, 1969) [7] . The study on the dynamics of ossification of the limb bones provides a great help in estimation of fetal age (Succu et al., 2023) [23] . Various workers have reported the age-related chronology for first appearance of ossification centers of pelvic limb bones by radiographic and double staining studies in fetuses of goat (Parmar et al., 2009b; Chaudhary, 2017; Chaudhary, 2019; Chaudhary, 2021a, b) [2, 3, 4, 5, 17] , sheep (Richardson et al., 1976; Nissar et al., 2017; Sahil and Ahmed, 2022) [22, 14, 24] , cattle (Gjesdal, 1969; Lindsay, 1969; Richardson et al., 1990) [7, 9, 14, 21] , and buffalo (Rao et al., 2012) [19] . The fetal age associated assessment of growth of pelvic limb bones by gross, radiographic, double staining methods also reported in goat (Chaudhary, 2017; Chaudhary, 2019; Chaudhary, 2021ab) [2, 3, 4, 5] , in sheep (Richardson et al., 1976; Martin and Gracia- Gonzalez, 2015; Nissar, et al. 2017) [11, 14, 22] , and in cattle (Gjesdal, 1969; Richardson et al., 1990) [7, 21] . Gjesdal (1969) [7] evolved prediction equation to estimate bovine fetal age from cranium length. It seems that there are no reports on daily growth rate of length and width of