Growth performance and rumen development in Malabari kids reared under different production systems.
In order to investigate the effect of rearing systems on growth and rumen development in Malabari male kids, 14 pre-weaned Malabari male kids of uniform morphological characters were randomly divided into two equal groups as T1 and T2. Both the groups were reared intensively for 12 weeks whereby kids under T1 group were allowed to suckle their dams and provided green grass ad libitum. The kids under T2 were weaned at the age of 7 days and provided formulated semi-solid broiler goat concentrate diet through the feeding bottle and were not offered any grass/roughage. Parameters like live weight gain, daily weight gain and body measurements were studied to evaluate the growth performance. However, gastrointestinal tract morphometric studies and qualitative morphological analysis of rumen papillae were undertaken to measure the rumen development. The daily weight gain of kids under T2 was significantly (P ≤ 0.01) higher than the daily weight gain of kids under T1. Also, the body measurements like height at withers, heart girth and body length were significantly (P ≤ 0.01) higher in T2 than in T1. The rumen and abomasum were comparatively more developed in T2 than in T1. The morphology of rumen papillae in both groups was different in size, shape and colour. The length, width, density and surface area of rumen papillae among kids in T2 were significantly (P ≤ 0.01) higher than those kids in T1. The results of the present study indicated that the feeding of semi-solid broiler goat concentrate diet improved growth performance and early rumen development in kids.
['Kotresh Prasad|C|C|http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1594-5421', 'Abraham|John|J|', 'Panchbhai|Girish|G|', 'Barman|Deepandita|D|', 'Nag|Pradeep|P|', 'Ajithakumar|H M|HM|']
D000821:Animal Feed D000822:Animal Husbandry D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena D000818:Animals D004032:Diet D004043:Dietary Fiber D006041:Goats D008297:Male D012417:Rumen D014886:Weaning D015430:Weight Gain
Growth Rumen Malabari Semi-solid Concentrate diet Broiler concentrate