THE MUZZLE PATTERNS AND ITS CLASSIFICATIO N FOR DERMATOGLYPHICS OF THE MUZZLE OF CATTLE

The muzzle prints of 602 animals belonging to the cattle yard of NDRI, Karnal, India and Karkendamm research station of Institute of Animal Breeding and Animal Husbandry, Kiel, Germany, were collected by 'modif ied cyclostyle ink procedure'. On the basis of presence and absence of central valley the muzzle prints were classified into two main catego ries viz. Grooved and Non-grooved categories. The third category was a lso opened, where the muzzle prints were entirely different from the p atterns of grooved and non-grooved categories. Each of these categorie s were further divided, on the basis of distribution and arrangement o f beads, ridges and pattern ridges, into 6, 5 and 3 classes, respectiv ely. Where each class represent the pattern of the muzzle. The classif ication bf muzzle will provide strong base in developing system of cod ing for natural and individual identification system in bovines.