Non-genetic factors affecting pre-weaning growth and survival rate in Barbari kids under semi-intensive management system

Abstract

The effect of non-genetic factors on pre-weaning growth and survival performance in Barbari kids was assessed to maximize pre-weaning growth and survival rates. Performance records of 10,013 Barbari goats maintained at ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats, Makhdoom, Mathura, India, from 1995 to 2020 were analyzed for non-genetic factors. The effect of period and season of birth, type of births, sex of kids, parity of doe and dam’s 90- days milk yield were significant on birth weight and pre-weaning growth. Kids born in spring and winter had higher birth weight than those born in summer, monsoon and autumn, and maintained their superiority up to weaning. Male and single-born kids at birth were heavier than their counterparts and maintained superiority up to weaning. Significant linear association was observed in body weight at birth, 3 months and average daily weight gains with the increase in doe’s milk yield. Multiparous does produced kids with higher birth weight than primiparous does. Kidding in inclement seasons such as the peak of monsoon, summer and winter was associated with higher mortality. Autumn-born kids had the lowest pre-weaning mortality followed by the spring season. Higher mortality incidences were obtained in multiple-born kids, kids with low birth weight (<1.5 kg) and doe’s with low milk yield. The results suggest that to obtain higher growth and survival of kids, breeding should be planned to obtain maximum kidding during the spring and autumn seasons. Adequate care should be given to kids born from does with lesser milk yield, triplet or less birth weight, and for first 15 days of birth.

Genetic and non-genetic factors affecting first parity growth, reproductive and lactation traits in Barbari goats under semi-intensive management in semi-arid region of India

“…Higher birth weight and growth rate in male kids at later ages attributed to vigorous behaviour of male in suckling on account of differential hormone influence resulted in greater access of milk up to weaning, whose impact last at later ages also. Present results were in agreement of those reported by Sanchez et al (1994) in Granadina graded goats, Singh and Rai (2006) in Barbari in farmers flock, Singh et al (2008) in Jamunapari, Patel and Pandey (2013) in Mehsana goat, Ofori and Hagan (2020) in West African dwarf goat.…”

“…Fluctuation in body weight at birth over the periods was mainly attributed to variation in weight at first kidding, age at first kidding, multiple birth rates and use of sets of different sires over the periods along with other climatic factors. Body weight and litter size at birth were very important economic traits which not only affects weight gain at later ages but also survival rate and fertility in female (Singh et al 2008). Almost similar trend in body weight was observed with the advancement of age with respect to period of birth.…”

Maternal, Postnatal, and Management-Related Factors Involved in Daily Weight Gain and Survivability of Suckling Zaraibi Goat Kids in Egypt

“…In this study, the majority of mortality in kids occurred during the first month of age (160/282, 56.74%), followed by the second (86/282, 30.49%) and third months (36/282, 12.77%). Similar results were observed in previous studies conducted on kids and lambs, where approximately 69% of all the pre-weaning mortality of kids [ 32 ] and approximately 50% of all the pre-weaning mortality of lambs [ 19 , 33 ] occurred during the first month of age. In this study, the data analysis showed that a higher KBW was significantly associated with a lower occurrence of postnatal mortality.…”

“…The litter size and KBW are considered to be other factors that affect the ADG during the pre-weaning period, as single-born kids had a higher ADG on average compared with multiple-born kids [ 18 ]. Additionally, a positive correlation was observed between the KBW and ADG during the aforementioned period [ 19 , 20 ]. This demonstrates the superiority of single-born kids in terms of their BW; thus, the pre-weaning growth rate may be attributed to the prenatal competition between fetuses for nutrients in the uterus [ 4 ].…”

​Risk Factors Associated with Preweaning Mortality of Barbari, Jamunapari and Jakhrana Goat Kids

“…In this study, mortality rate of triplet-quadruplet kids was recorded to be higher than that of the kids born as twins and single. This is in concurrence with findings of Singh et al, (2022). Higher survival of single born kid is probably due to higher availability of milk from the dam compared to twin and triplet born kids.…”