Performance and carcass characteristics of intact and castrated male Black goat kids fed diets of various energy levels

Abstract

Thirty Black goat male kids were used in a 3 × 2 factorial arrangement to evaluate the effects of three dietary energy levels (EL) and early castration (TRT) on growth performance, body and carcass characteristics. Upon weaning at 90 days of age, kids were randomly divided into three equal groups (n = 10: five intact and five castrated) and assigned to one of the three dietary treatments containing 15% CP and different energy levels: low (LEL; 10.44 MJ ME/kg DM), medium (MEL; 11.60 MJ ME/kg DM) and high energy (HEL; 12.90 MJ ME/kg DM). Kids were individually fed on an ad libitum basis and were slaughtered at the end of the fattening period. Results showed no differences between castrated and intact kids in feed and nutrient intake. The level of dietary energy affected dry matter intake (P < 0.05), metabolisable energy intake (P < 0.01), crude protein intake (P < 0.05), neutral detergent fibre (P < 0.001) and acid detergent fibre intakes (P < 0.001). Dry matter intake was 280, 305 and 264 g/kg W 0.75 .day for kids receiving LEL, MEL and HEL diets, respectively. Metabolisable energy intake was the highest for kids receiving the MEL diet (0.90 Mcal/kg W 0.75 .day) compared with LEL (0.73 Mcal/ kg W 0.75 .day) and HEL (0.88 Mcal/kg W 0.75 .day) diets. Final liveweight and average daily gain (ADG) were greater (P < 0.01) in MEL diets. Kids fed MEL gained 133 g/day, while ADG values were 92 and 100 g/day for kids fed LEL and HEL diets, respectively. Total muscle percentage was greater (P < 0.05) for kids fed MEL diets (55.9%) compared with LEL (53.8%) and HEL (51.1%) diets. Castrated kids had lower (P < 0.01) carcass muscle percentage, but higher carcass (P < 0.01) and subcutaneous (P < 0.001) fat percentages than intact kids. It can be concluded that the best growth performance was observed in kids receiving the MEL with no differences between castrated and intact kids. Castration influenced accretion of fat in castrated kids.

Effects of dietary energy level on growth performance, blood parameters and meat quality in fattening male Hu lambs

“…Energy is the most common nutrition limiting factor in small ruminant (NRC, 2007). Energy deficiency retards lamb growth performance, carcass characteristics and productivity (Hosseini, Akbary, Maheri-Sis, & Aghsaghali, 2008), which is further accompanied by deficiencies in protein, vitamins and minerals (Abdullah et al, 2008;Lu & Potchoiba, 1990). The proper growth and development of growing lambs largely depend on the nutrition level, and increasing dietary energy levels generally can improve the average daily gain (ADG) and feed efficiency of sheep (Ebrahimi, Ahmadi, Zamiri, & Rowghani, 2007;Hosseini et al, 2008;Song et al, 2018), while insufficient nutrition, especially of energy, reduces the growth performance of intensively managed sheep (Bellof & Pallauf 2004;Cameron & Speakman 2010;Kim et al, 2017).…”

The Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Black Baladi Kids Fed Diets with Graded Quantities of Sweet Lupin Grain (Lupinus angustifolius)

“…On the other hand, the linear measurements of growing black Baladi kids showed no differences as provided in Table 6. 3 1.3 1.4 1.5 0.07 0.17 Carcass cut weights (kg) 4 11.9 a 13.3 b 13.2 b 0.69 ≤0.05 1 Diets were (1) no LUP (CON), (2) 100 g/kg LUP (LUP100), and (3) 200 g/kg LUP (LUP200). Within a row, means without common letters ( a and b ) differ (p ≤ 0.05).…”

“…Black goats are well adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions, including protein and mineral deficits, and they are extremely effective at utilizing low-quality roughages [1]. Due to these harsh environments, high costly protein sources are accounted as a major part of their diets to meet their crude protein requirements.…”

“…1 Diets were(1) no LUP (CON), (2) 100 g/kg LUP (LUP100), and (3) 200 g/kg LUP (LUP200). Within a row, means without common letters ( a and b ) differ (p ≤ 0.05) 2.…”

“…1 Diets were(1) no LUP (CON), (2) 100 g/kg LUP (LUP100), and (3) 200 g/kg LUP (LUP200) 2. Standard error.…”