author(s)
TC Tolenkhomba, Warngam Anal, N Shyamsana Singh, JK Chaudhury and Prava Mayengbam

abstract
The different body measurements, which represent the size of the animal is important criteria for selection of animal. Principal component analysis (PCA) transform an original group of variables into another group, principal components, which are a linear combination of original variables. The objective of current study was to provide the information about morphological structures of local bulls "Zobawng" of Mizoram for the purpose of breed characterization using PCA. Twenty different biometric traits (body length, height at wither, heart girth, paunch girth, forehead width, arm length, elbow length, fore-shank length, thigh length, hind shank length, pes length, tail length, switch length, ear length, head length, eye to eye space, circumference of neck, neck length, circumference of horn and space between horns) in 50 bulls of Mizoram local cattle 'Zobawng' were recorded from native tract (viz. Champhai and Saiha districts) of Mizoram, India and analyzed by Principal component analysis to explain body conformation. The average of these various traits indicates that local cattle of Mizoram is of smaller type of cattle breed. Factor analysis with promax rotation revealed five factors which explained about 78.37% of the total variation. Factor 1 described the general body conformation and explained 45.56% of total variation. It was represented by significant positive high loading of body length, height at wither, Paunch girth, forehead width, circumference of neck, neck length, arm length, elbow length, fore shank length, thigh length and hind shank length. The communality ranged from 0.633 (high at weather) to 0.963 (elbow length) and unique factors ranged from 0.367 to 0.037 for all the 20 different biometric traits.