Relationship Between Live Body Weight and Linear Body Measurements in Goats: A Meta-Analysis Using a Multilevel Random-Effects Model.

This study determined the relationship between live body weight (BW) and linear body measurements, including heart girth (HG), body length (BL) and withers height (WH) using a meta-analytic method. This meta-analysis synthesized the evidence from studies conducted in goats to examine the relationship between BW and HG, BL, and WH. Five electronic databases (Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed, OpenAlex, and Scopus) were systematically searched for studies published between 2005 and 2025. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) tool was used to assess the risk of bias, and a multilevel random-effects model was used for analysis due to many studies containing multiple effect sizes. A total of 45 studies were included, with the sample size ranging from 30 to 1072 goats. The multilevel random-effects model revealed a pooled correlation coefficients of 0.83 between BW and HG (95% CI: 0.79-0.87), 0.79 between BW and BL (95% CI: 0.74-0.83), and 0.72 between BW and WH (95% CI: 0.64-0.78). The results also revealed a pooled regression coefficients of 0.65 (95% CI: 0.55-0.74), 0.40 (95% CI: 0.04-0.76), and 0.06 (95% CI: -0.02-0.14) for HG, BL and WH, respectively. This meta-analysis provides evidence of strong positive significant associations between body weight and heart girth, body length, and withers height in goats. The findings highlight the potential of these linear body measurements as practical indicators of body weight, particularly in production systems where weighing equipment is not available.