A study on the determination of body condition score and somatic cell count in Turkish Saanen goats

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate body condition score (BCS) and somatic cell count (SCC) of milk in Turkish Saanen goats. Data were obtained from 95 goats during the morning milking. While a 1-5 scale was used to assess BCS, direct microscopy was performed to analyse SCC. Effect of stage of lactation (SL) and number of kids at birth (NK) were evaluated in three subgroups. While SL has not affected the parameters, goats with a single kid had significantly higher BCS (P < 0.05) than goats with twins. Correlation coefficient between evaluated parameters was estimated as weak (r = 0.08). In conclusion, milk SCC and BCS levels of Turkish Saanen goats were assumed to be in acceptable thresholds.

2,4-Thiazolidinedione Treatment Improves the Innate Immune Response in Dairy Goats with Induced Subclinical Mastitis

“…1 kg/d), the adipocyte size increased over time, and they were in late lactation; thus, a negative energy balance, if present, was temporary and of little importance. However, as discussed above, the response to mastitis in the present study is somewhat similar to dairy cows in negative energy balance in the study of Moyes et al [ 57 ] and the body condition score of the goats in our study was 1.6 ± 0.5 (mean ± SD; scale 1–5), which is in the low range compared to the values reported in literature for this breed of goats and stage of lactation [ 69 ]. In our experiment, the ration was not optimized for lactating goats.…”

Poor placental traits reduce kid birth weight in young Saanen dams in the first parity

“…Cotyledon efficiency (CE) was defined as the ratio of kid BW in grams to the total cotyledon surface area (TCSA). TCSA was calculated after the measurements of all the cotyledons in individual placenta as cm 2 with the following formula: radius squared of cotyledon [((CWi + CL) / 4) 2 ] × 3.14 (π) × TCN. PE was calculated as the ratio of kid BW to PW for each doe.…”

“…Saanen is a breed of goat with a high tolerance to different climatic conditions and is mostly raised for milk production in various regions of Turkey (1,2). Recently this breed has gained increasing importance in order to improve the milk yield of local breeds of Turkey via crossbreeding studies (3).…”

The Time of Artificial Insemination with Cooled Semen does not Affect the Pregnancy Rate in Anestrous Goats

“…All females were in anestrus at the onset of the experiment which was determined by the absence of corpus luteum (CL) detected by two transrectal ultrasound examinations (Aloka SSD 500, Tokyo, Japan; transducer 7.5 MHz) performed 8 days apart with the second one just before starting the experiment. Goats in extensive management conditions had a body condition score (BCS) of 2.8±0.3 (mean ± SD; scale 1-5, Atasever et al 2015) and bodyweight of 45.2±7.2 kg. During the study, goats grazed herded by the owner in a landscape of shrubs such as creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa ), Acacia farnesiana, grasses (i.e., Bouteloua gracilis and B. curtipendula) and occasionally on crop residues such as corn (Zea mais) and sorghum for approximately 8 h daily.…”