Phenotypic Variations in Birth and Body Weights of the Sudanese Desert Goats

A M Ismail, I A Yousif^* and A A Fadlelmoula^**

1Dept. of Animal Production, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Elfasher.
abdelazizfadlelmoula@gmail.com
* Dept. of Genetics and Animal Breeding, Faculty of Animal Production, University of Khartoum,
Postal code: 13314, Shambat-Sudan.

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to investigate the phenotypic variations in birth and body weights at various ages of desert goats. A total of 30 bucks and 120 does of Sudanese desert goats were mated and 586 kids were obtained in three consecutive batches.

Autumn born kids were  higher percentage (49.8%) than winter (28.3%) or summer (21.9%) born ones. The range of body weights from birth to one year were 2.42 - 20.6, 2.60 - 22.3 and 2.53 - 21.6 kg for females, males and overall mean. The average daily body gain was 54.6 g and 50.3 g for males, and females respectively and the highest gain was at the first month age (84.9 g and 78.7 g for males and females respectively). Autumn born kids were found to attain  (P<0.01) higher body weight (2.57 - 22.0 kg) at birth and one year old than either winter or summer born kinds.

Key words: Buck, does, growth, kids

Introduction

Goat population in the Sudan was estimated to be 37.5 million heads with 3% annual growth rate (FAO 1999). Sudanese desert goats are mainly found in Western region of the Sudan which including Dar-fur and Kordofan states. Desert goats are mainly raised for meat production especially in rural areas, and they also provide milk for family needs. Body weight gain expresses how the animal utilizes its feed in term of growth rate. Itidal (1989) reported 0.1 kg body gain per day for desert goat. Mustaffa (1992) reported 87.9 grams average daily body weight gain for Sudanese desert goats from one day old up to 13 weeks of age; while he reported an average daily gain of 65 and 75 gram for the first and seventh months of age respectively in Sudanese Nubian goat kids. Adult body weight showed great variation among different goat breeds and environments. Wilson (1982) reported an average adult body weight of Sudanese desert goat breed of 38 and 33 Kg for males and females respectively, whereas, Mustaffa (1992) reported 22.3 kg at 12 month for Nubian goats.  Ibrahim and Tibin (2003) found an average body weight of 27 Kg for adult Sudanese Nubian goats at three years of age. Mohamed and Elimam (2007) conducted a study that included 330 females and 46 male desert goats in Elobied area- North Kordofan State, reported body weights ranged from 15.8 and 35kg for males and 14.4 and 19.2kg for females at 1and 4 years of age respectively. Elimam and Amir (2007) in another study calculated a body weight of 23.1 for male and 21.9kg for female Taggar goat at one year of age. El imam and Amir (2007) studied the characteristics of Ingessana goats in Blue Nile State- Sudan, and found average body weights ranging from 9.6 to 28.3kg in goats of age of less than one year up to more than four years.

The objectives of the current study were to evaluate birth weight and the phenotypic variations in the body weight gain in the Sudanese desert goat.
 

Materials and Methods

This experiment was conducted in North Dar-fur state during the period from May 2004 to May 2008. This area is classified as arid and semi arid zones with annual rainfall ranging between 100 and 150 ml. The breeding flock consisted of 30 bucks and 120 does aged 1-2 years, were purchased directly from owners and they were selected according to their apparent characteristics of the Sudanese desert goats described by Devendra (1982). The experiment was conducted in the premises of the Western Sudan Agricultural Research Station in Elfasher city. Each individual was identified by neck lace carrying a serial number (1.-150) for the does and (150-300) for the bucks, and from 301-750 for the offspring. The flock was fed a formulated ration constituted of 30% Dura, 69% Ground nut cake and 1% common salt. Each animal received about 500 g of concentrate daily. Initial body weights were taken individually from the breeding flock at the start of the experiment and then on biweekly interval up to the termination of the experiment. Each buck was randomly assigned to mate with three does. Birth weights of the born kids were recorded during 2-4 hours after birth, there after the off-springs were weighed through out the experimental period (up to one year) at monthly intervals.

Data collected was classified on the basis of sex and season to two and three groups respectively. Means ± SE for the birth and body weights were calculated. Analysis of variance was done to examine possible sex and season effects on the variables measured. Data analysis was done with the aid of SAS (2004) statistical package.
 

Results

Distribution of kids obtained in batches per sex and season is displayed in Table 1. During the experimental period about 586 kids were obtained from 30 sires and 120 dams, however only 366 progeny survived to one year or more. Results showed that male kids were   higher in number than females in batch 1 and 2, however the reverse was true for batch 3. Generally the number of male kids represented 63% of the total population whereas the number of females was 37 %. The results also indicated that 49.8 % of the offspring population was delivered during autumn season which was   higher than the number of the kids obtained during winter and summer (28.3 % and 21.9 % respectively).

 Results in table (2) and (3) show the overall and by sex birth and monthly average body weights of the Sudanese desert goats. The results revealed that male kids were  (P<0.01) heavier (2.60 - 22.2 kg) than females (2.42-2.59 kg) at all ages. The overall average daily weight gain was (53.0 gm). Males gained  (P<0.01) high weight at all ages.

 The highest weight gain was recorded during the first month then after the results exhibited a declining trend up to one year (Figure 1); however the accumulative weight gain exhibited a linear increasing trend up to one year. The general growth curves of Sudanese desert goats seemed to follow similar pattern of sigmoid shape with the female and overall curves exhibiting a fluctuating trend at some points.

Figure 1. Growth curves of Sudanese desert goats

Season affected body weight (Table 4). Autumn born kids attained the highest average body weights (2.57-22.00 kg) than winter (2.53-21.17 kg) and summer (2.44-21.53 kg) born kids from birth to one year old.

Discussion

In the present study the total number of progeny obtained was 586 in three successive batches. Male proportion was substantially higher than female (63% vs. 37%). The same trend was observed in batch one and two; however the numbers of female kids were slightly higher than the males in the third batch. This may emphasize the presence of sexual dimorphism, thus male and female data should be considered differently when evaluating live weight. The study illustrated that autumn born kids were  heavier (49.8%) than winter (28.3%) and summer (21.9%) born kids. This result indicated that there was no seasonality in breeding of Sudanese desert goats and the high frequency of kidding in autumn could be attributed to the better pasture and fine weather as well as the in-door concentrate supplementation, similar result was stated by Karna et al 2001. Male kids had  higher average body weight (2.60 – 22.26 kg) than female kids (2.42 – 20.59 kg). These results are in agreement with those reported by Hajer (2003); Mohamed and Elimam (2007) for desert goats and Jing et al (2010) for longling yellow goats in China. The higher average birth weight obtained in this study could be attributed to improved management including additional supplementation of concentrates in-door. The result is comparable with that of Mustafa (1992) and Hajer (2003) and that found by Elimam et al (2007) for Tagger kids. The results in this study showed higher daily body weight gain than that of Omani goats (Mahgoub et al 2005) and for Black Bengal goats (Bera et al (2008). The study concluded that the Sudanese desert goats showed no seasonality in breeding and were found to have a slightly higher body weight and body weight gain; this may provide valuable information that will assist breeders and genetic improvement specialists when conducting selection and preservation programs in Sudanese desert goats.

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Received 11 January 2011; Accepted 13 January 2011; Published 1 February 2011

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