• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.487-495
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• 2007

The objectives of the present study were to initiate cloning of Korean native goat by somatic cell nuclear transfer (NT) and to examine whether unovulated (follicular) oocytes can support the same developmental ability of NT embryos as ovulated (oviductal) oocytes after hCG injection in stimulated cycles of the goat. The in vivo-matured and immature oocytes were collected from the oviducts and follicles of superovulated does, respectively, and the immature oocytes were maturated in vitro. Ear skin fibroblasts derived from a 3-yr-old female Korean native goat were used as the donors of nuclei or karyoplasts. Following fusion, activation and in vitro culture to a 2- to 4-cell stage, 49 in vitro-derived and 105 in vivo-derived embryos were transferred to 6 and 17 recipient does, respectively. One doe and three does of the respective groups were identified as pregnant by ultrasonography on day 30 after embryo transfer. However, only one doe, which had received in vivo-derived embryos, delivered a normal female kid of 1.9 kg on d 149. The cloned kid gained more weight than her age-matched females as much as 87% during the first 4 mo after birth (17.7 vs. $9.4{\pm}0.8$ kg) and reached puberty at 6-mo age a few months earlier than normal female does. The telomere length of the kid, which was similar to that of the donor fibroblast at 2-mo age, decreased 8% between 2- and 7-mo ages. Moreover, at 7-mo age, she had 21% shorter telomere than her age-matched goats. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which a cloned animal born with a normal weight exhibited accelerated growth and development. The unusually rapid growth and development of the cloned goat may have resulted from SCNT-associated epigenetic reprogramming involving telomere shortening.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.1386-1392
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• 2011

The aim of the present work was to study the effects of a polyherbal supplement on cross bred does, starting from the last month of pregnancy to weaning, on milk yield, kid birth weight and growth rate. Thirty does were divided into three treatments of ten each in individual pens: low level supplementation (LS), high level supplementation (HS) and non-supplemented treatment (NS) as control. Low supplemented goats were given 125 mg/kg BW/d of polyherbal combination; high supplemented goats were given 250 mg/kg BW/d. The study was carried out in 2008. Fifty-nine kids were born from all the experimental animals. There was no difference on milk yield between supplemented groups and control (p>0.05), although polyherbal supplementation had positive effect on litter birth weight and growth rate compared to control. Weaning weights were higher (p<0.001) in LS and HS compared to NS does. In both supplemented treatments compared to control, mortalities and morbidities were also lower in kids born. It is concluded that pre-partum to weaning supplementation increases kids growth rates and weaning weights, as well as reduces kid mortalities, but it doesn't have significant effect on milk production.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.1314-1326
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• 2023

Sheep and goats can efficiently convert low quality forage into high-quality meat which contains specific nutrients and quality traits. Carcass traits and quality attributes of sheep and goat meat depend upon several factors and one of most effective strategies amongst these is feeding regimens. In this review, the major aspects of feeding regimens affecting growth rate, carcass traits and quality attributes of sheep and goat meat are thoroughly discussed, with a particular focus on physical-chemical composition, flavor profile, and fatty acid (FA) profile. Grazing lambs and kids receiving concentrate or under stall-feeding systems had greater average daily gain and carcass yield compared with animals reared on pasture only. However, growth rate was higher in lambs/kids grazing on pastures of improved quality. Moreover, the meat of grazing lambs receiving concentrate had more intense flavor, intramuscular fat (IMF) content, and unhealthy FA composition, but comparable color, tenderness, juiciness, and protein content compared to that of lambs grazed on grass only. In contrast, meat of concentrate-fed lambs had more intense color, greater tenderness and juiciness, IMF and protein contents, and lower flavor linked to meat. Additionally, the meat of kids grazed on concentrate supplementation had higher color coordinates, tenderness, IMF content and unhealthy FA composition, whereas juiciness and flavor protein content were similar. In contrast, kids with concentrate supplementation had superior color coordinates, juiciness, IMF content and unhealthy FA composition, but lower tenderness and flavor intensity compared to pasture-grazed kids. Thus, indoor-finished or supplemented grazing sheep/goats had higher growth rate and carcass quality, higher IMF content and unhealthy FA composition compared to animals grazed on grass only. Finally, supplementation with concentrate increased flavor intensity in lamb meat, and improved color and tenderness in kid meat, whereas indoor-fed sheep/goats had improved color and juiciness as well as reduced flavor compared to pasture-grazed animals.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2004

Despite higher fecundity, Black Bengal goat generally has lower milk production, which is often insufficient for their multiple kids. However, milk requirement of Black Bengal kids is poorly defined. Present trial was thus designed to determine the requirement and intake of milk of pre-weaned Black Bengal kids in relation to their growth rate age and sex. Thirty, one month old Black Bengal kids of either sex divided into two groups were allocated to two groups, suckling alone (T1) or suckling along with teat-bottle feeding of milk (T2). Ten kids were allocated for the T1 and 20 kids were allocated for the T2. Digestibility of milk was also determined in T2 animals. Average daily consumption of milk, milk energy and milk N were 773 and 722 g, 1,170 and 1,093 kJ/kg $W^{0.75}/d$ and 1,552 and 1,462 mg N/kg $W^{0.75}/d$, respectively. During 9 weeks trial period, male kids had significantly higher live weight (4.32 vs. 4.20 kg; p<0.01) and intake of milk (773 vs. 722 g/d; p<0.05), energy (117 vs. 1,093 kJ/kg $W^{0.75}$/d; p<0.01) and N (1,552 vs.1,462 mg/k $W^{0.75}/d$; p<0.01) than the female. Milk consumption and the corresponding milk energy and milk N intake increased linearly up to 5th week of the trial, which, then decreased quadratically up to 9th week i.e., up to the weaning. Overall milk DM intake during this period was 2.58% (range 1.5-3.0%) of live weight or about 36 g/kg $W^{0.75}/d$ (range 29-45 g/kg $W^{0.75}/d$). Pre-weaned Black Bengal kids of about 4.5 kg weight, growing at the rate of 60 g weight daily requires at least 750 g milk daily. Daily live weight gain, estimated as the regression between the live weights over time, was 60 g ($r^2$=0.99) and 55 g ($r^2$=0.99), respectively, for the male and female kids. Efficiency of milk energy utilization for weight gain ranged from 0.67 to 0.84 (mean 0.81) for the male kid and 0.75 to 0.91 (mean 0.82) for the female kids. Efficiency of milk protein utilization for weight gain ranged from 0.46 to 0.70 (mean 0.61) for the male kid and 0.51 to 0.81 (mean 0.64) for the female kids. Additional teat-bottle feeding of suckling kids had no significant effect on their growth rate (54vs. 57 g/d). Average digestibility of milk DM, OM and N was 98.85, 98.99 and 98.69%, respectively and they were slightly (p>0.05) higher in the male than the female kids. Results suggest that the requirement of energy and protein and their utilization efficiency in Black Bengal kids is not different from that of the other breeds of goat.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.435-438
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• 1997

Twelve newborn goat kids born of philippine does (3.5 and 5 years old) were used in this study. Four mother (candidate) doe goats were randomly allocated to each group. The mother does were infected orally with three levels (0, 15,000 and 30,000 larvae) of infective Haemonchus contortus larvae. Before infection all animals were housed in individual pens with concrete floors. They were provided with a uniform management. Estrus of does were synchronized using PGF2 alpha. All the animals were bred naturally by the same buck. Baby goat born of infected mother goats were divided into three groups. $T_1$, $T_2$ and $T_3$), respectively, from mother treatment groups. Birth weight and growth of goat kids born from H. contortus infected mother goats were determined. Birth weights of kids of $T_1$, $T_2$ and $T_3$ were 1.9, 1.5 and 1.2 kg, respectively. No significant (p > 0.05) differences in birth weight of kids for the 3 treatment groups were found. However, significant (p < 0.05) effects of stomach worm infection and duration of infection on liveweight gain of kids were observed. After second and third week of birth, respectively, the kids of groups 3 and 2 registered lover liveweight gains than the kids in control group. However, no significant (p > 0.05) difference in liveweight gain was found between the kids of infected mother does. Fecal egg counts of the infected mother does showed patent infections which also indicated by postmortem worm counts. However, no worm egg was found in the feces of the test kids.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.222-237
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• 2002

Effects of high and low levels of feeding with or without protected protein on the performance of lactating goats were studied. Twenty four German Fawn goats either from 1st ($43.37{\pm}3.937$ kg and 2 year old) or 3rd $62.64{\pm}6.783$ kg and 4-5 year old) parity were used for the trial. Feeding levels were 7.2 (I) and 5.2 (II) MJ ME/litre of milk of 3.5% fat in addition to that of the maintenance allowance. At each feeding level, diet had either unprotected (U) or formaldehyde protected (P) soya-meal. Thus, four diets were IU, IP, IIU and IIP, having six animals in each. The diets were composed of hay and pellet (10:4:1 of beet pulp : barley : soya-meal). Effect of feeding level, protein protection, parity, health status and kid number on intake, milk yield, milk composition, growth rate of goats were recorded across the 21 weeks of study. High feeding level resulted increase (p<0.001) in estimated metabolizable energy (ME) and metabolizable protein (MP) availability. Dietary inclusion of protected soya-meal increased (p<0.001) the estimated MP but not the ME availability. Animals in 1st parity ate more (p<0.001) DM (111 vs. 102 g/kg $W^{0.75}$/d) than those in 3rd parity. Animals with twin kids (110 g/kg $W^{0.75}$/d) had higher (p<0.001) DM intake than those with single kid (102 g/kg $W^{0.75}$/d). Fat (4%) corrected milk (FCM) yield was not effected by high (1,924 g/d) or low (1,927 g/d) feeding level but increased (p<0.001) with protected (2,166 g/d) compared with unprotected (1,703 g/d) soya-meal. FCM yield for four dietary combinations were 1,806, 2,078, 1,600 and 2,254 g/d for diets IU, IP, IIU and IIP, respectively. For unit increase (g) in estimated MP availability relative to ME (MJ) intake, FCM yield increased ($1,418{\pm}275.6$) g daily ($r^2$=0.58; p<0.001). Milk fat (3.14 vs. 3.54%; p<0.001) and protein (2.94 vs. 3.04% p<0.05) contents were lower at high than the low feeding level. Protected protein increased (p<0.001) the fat, lactose and net energy (NE) content of milk. Milk urea concentration of 175, 183, 192 and 204 mg/l for diets IU, IP, IIU and IIP, respectively indicated lower RDP content of these diets. The RDP contents were 6.97, 6.70, 7.30 and 6.83 g/MJ of ME for diets IU, IP, IIU and IIP, respectively. Live weight change over the experimental period were 41, 6, 17 and 19 g/d. Absence of any positive response of high feeding was probably due to inefficient rumen fermentation resulting from inadequate RDP supply. Protected protein improved production performance apparently by increasing MP:ME ratio in the absorbed nutrient.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.271-278
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• 2002

This experiment was conducted to investigate the genetic and non-genetic factors affecting kid survivability in goats from birth to 90 days of age. The purebreds had lower survivability than the crossbreds, with significant (p$<$0.05) difference amongst themselves for the age of 31 to 90 days. The locational effect on survivability was insignificant for all the periods except 16 to 60 days (p$<$0.05) of age. The sex and birth type also had significant (p$<$0.05) effect on survivability for all the periods except 0 to 7 days of age. The survivability was found to be significantly (p$<$0.05) higher for kids born in summer season followed by those born in winter and rainy season. Milk produced by the does were significantly (p$<$0.05) affected on the survivability of kids during the period from 16 to 60 days of age. The survivability of kids were highest and lowest having milk yield of doe found to be 400-600 g/day and 80-200 g/day, respectively. Birth weight had significant (p$<$0.05) effect on survivability for all the stages of growth up to 90 days of age. Survivability was positively correlated with does’ milk yield as well as kids birth weight. Interactions of sex with location or birth type were significant (p$<$0.01 and p$<$0.05, respectively) though interaction between sex and genetic group was insignificant.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1293-1302
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• 2014

The aim of study was to determine the energy requirements for maintenance and growth of forty-one Saanen, intact male kids with initial body weight (BW) of $5.12{\pm}0.19$ kg. The baseline (BL) group consisted of eight kids averaging $5.46{\pm}0.18$ kg BW. An intermediate group consisted of six kids, fed for ad libitum intake, that were slaughtered when they reached an average BW of $12.9{\pm}0.29$ kg. The remaining kids (n = 27) were randomly allocated into nine slaughter groups (blocks) of three animals distributed among three amounts of dry matter intake (DMI; ad libitum and restricted to 70% or 40% of ad libitum intake). Animals in a group were slaughtered when the ad libitum-treatment kid in the group reached 20 kg BW. In a digestibility trial, 21 kids (same animals of the comparative slaughter) were housed in metabolic cages and used in a completely randomized design to evaluate the energetic value of the diet at different feed intake levels. The net energy for maintenance ($NE_m$) was $417kJ/kg^{0.75}$ of empty BW (EBW)/d, while the metabolizable energy for maintenance ($ME_m$) was $657kJ/kg^{0.75}$ of EBW/d. The efficiency of ME use for NE maintenance ($k_m$) was 0.64. Body fat content varied from 59.91 to 92.02 g/kg of EBW while body energy content varied from 6.37 to 7.76 MJ/kg of EBW, respectively, for 5 and 20 kg of EBW. The net energy for growth ($NE_g$) ranged from 7.4 to 9.0 MJ/kg of empty weight gain by day at 5 and 20 kg BW, respectively. This study indicated that the energy requirements in goats were lower than previously published requirements for growing dairy goats.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.1712-1720
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• 2014

Little is known about the gender differences in energetic requirements of goats in early life. In this study, we determined the energy requirements for maintenance and gain in intact male, castrated male and female Saanen goat kids using the comparative slaughter technique and provide new data on their body composition and energy efficiency. To determine the energy requirements for maintenance, we studied 21 intact males, 15 castrated males and 18 females ($5.0{\pm}0.1kg$ initial body weight (BW) and $23{\pm}5d$ of age) using a split-plot design with the following main factors: three genders (intact males, castrated males, and females) and three dry matter intake levels (ad libitum, 75% and 50% of ad libitum intake). A slaughter group included three kids, one for each nutritional plane, of each gender, and all three animals within a group were slaughtered when the ad libitum kid reached 15 kg in BW. Net energy requirements for gain were obtained for 17 intact males, eight castrated males and 15 females ($5.1{\pm}0.4kg$ BW and $23{\pm}13d$ of age). Animals were fed ad libitum and slaughtered when they reached 5, 10, and 15 kg in BW. A digestion trial was performed with nine kids of each gender to determine digestible energy, metabolizable energy and energy metabolizability of the diet. Our results show no effect of gender on the energy requirements for maintenance and gain, and overall net energy for maintenance was $205.6kJ/kg^{0.75}$ empty body weight gain (EBW) ($170.3kJ/kg^{0.75}$ BW) from 5 to 15 kg BW. Metabolizable energy for maintenance was calculated by iteration, assuming heat production equal to metabolizable energy intake at maintenance, and the result was $294.34kJ/kg^{0.75}$ EBW and $k_m$ of 0.70. As BW increased from 5 to 15 kg for all genders, the net energy required for gain increased from 9.5 to 12.0 kJ/g EBW gain (EWG), and assuming $k_g=0.47$, metabolizable energy for gain ranged from 20.2 to 25.5 kJ/g EWG. Our results indicate that it is not necessary to formulate diets with different energetic content for intact male, castrated male and female Saanen goat kids weighing from 5 to 15 kg.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.149-153
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• 1996

In the first step, birth weights and weights at 9 and 12 months were analysed and their variability were studied. Birth weight of kids had large within breed variation ranging from 0.50 to 1.60 kg. There were more than 100 kids with birth weights ranging from 1.2 to 1.6 kg. The birth weight of kids increased with the increase of kidding weight of dams. The weights of kids at 9 and 12 months also showed large within variation ranging from 5.0 to 18.0 kg and 16.0 to 19.0 kg respectively. In the second step, these existing large within breed variations were exploited selecting best animals for further mating. The birth weight of selected group($1.13{\pm}0.2kg$) was significantly(p<0.01) higher than the random group($0.93{\pm}0.05kg$). The weights in selected group for 3 and 6 months were $4.94{\pm}0.04$ and $8.40{\pm}0.05kg$ and that of random group was $3.99 {\pm}0.08$ and $7.07{\pm}0.11kg$ respectively and differences wee significant. Significantly higher average daily gains were noticed for selected group ($42.7{\pm}0.43g/day$) as against random group($33.3{\pm}0.81g/day$). From the results it may be concluded that selection and mating of best performing animals have some effect on the improvement of growth performance of kids which may be exploited for future planning and development in the field of goat production.