EVALUATION OF BODY WEIGHTS UP TO SIX MONTHS AMONG ALPINE MALABARI AND ITS BOER HALFBREDS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEAT GOAT GENOTYPES SUITED TO KERALA

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "EVALUATION OF BODY WEIGHTS UP TO SIX MONTHS AMONG ALPINE MALABARI AND ITS BOER HALFBREDS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEAT GOAT GENOTYPES SUITED TO KERALA"

Darren Freeman
5 years ago
Views:

1 EVALUATION OF BODY WEIGHTS UP TO SIX MONTHS AMONG ALPINE MALABARI AND ITS BOER HALFBREDS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEAT GOAT GENOTYPES SUITED TO KERALA Jeeva,L. 1, Nandakumar,P. 2 and Remya, R. 3 College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, Thrissur, Kerala ABSTRACT Tremendous potential of meat goat industry in Kerala state, endowed with huge biomass availability, is hampered due to non availability of meat goat genotypes suited to the state. Boer inheritance was evaluated and compared for growth and body weight with improved Alpine Malabari (AM) and its Boer half bred (BAM), in the development of meat goat suited to the state. s from first six months of age were recorded from hundred goat kids, fifty each belonging to AM and BAM. The influence of breed, sires, month of birth and sex on body weights were analyzed using Least squares analysis. Genetic group of the kid had a highly significant influence on body weights at first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth months with a clear superiority of BAM kids. BAM kids had body weight at 6.01 kg, kg and kg at first, third and sixth month while the corresponding figures for AM kids were 2.87, 4.30 and 6.81 Kg respectively. This clearly indicated the possibility of utilizing Boer inheritance in enhancing the bodyweights and development of meat goat suited to Kerala state. The sire effects were highly significant on the body weight at first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth months among AM and BAM kids, indicating additive genetic influences which can be commercially exploited using high genetic value of buck in the development of meat goat strains. Month of birth exerted highly significant influence on body weight from first to sixth month among AM and BAM kids. Kids born in January and December gained highest body weight possibly attributable to lowest temperature humidity index prevalent during January and December in Kerala state. Influence of sex of the kid on body weight was not found to be significant during the entire period of study. The results of the present study confirmed the potential of Boer breed in significantly enhancing body weight of the progeny, which can be potentially exploited for the development of meat goat suited to Kerala State. Keywords: Boer, bodyweight, month of birth, sire, additive genetic effects. 1. Veterinary Surgeon, Kerala State Poultry Development Corporation, Petta, Thiruvananthapuram. 2. Associate Professor, Communication Centre, Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy, Thrissur. (Corresponding author) 3. Senior Research Fellow, Department of Veterinary Public Health, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, Thrissur. 204

2 INTRODUCTION The State of Kerala with its tropical climate and an average rainfall of 338 cms favour abundant biomass availability by virtue of its lush green vegetation. The huge potential of meat goat industry in the state is hampered due to the non availability of meat goat genotypes, which can transform this abundant biomass into high quality meat. Malabari breed of goats native to Kerala are an admixture of Jamnapari, Surti and Arab goats (Kaura, 1952). Mukundan (1980), Stephen and Rai (1995) and Jithendrakumar (2003) have documented that average body weight of Malabari and its crosses Alpine at one year of age was below 23 kg. This body weight pattern makes Malabari unsuitable for intensive meat goat breeding. Boer breed of goats developed in South Africa had growth rate and lean meat production superior to any other meat breed (Casey and Niekerk, 1988; Shrestha and Fahmy, 2007). Glimp (1995) projected that Boer goats are likely to have a significant impact on the meat goat production which will eventually result in devel opment o f more stru ct ured breedi ng programmes and an increased interest in meat goat production. In a study on goat development in Maharashtra, Nimbkar(2000) reported substantial superiority of Boer halfbreds over the local goats up to 6 months of age. With this background performance of Alpine Malabari which is an improvement over Malabari in growth rate was compared with Boer x Alpine Malabari kids up to 6 months of age under humid tropical climate of Kerala, in an attempt to develop meat goat genotype suited to the state. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred go at ki ds, fi fty each belonging to Alpine Malabari (AM) and Boer x Alpine Malabari (BAM) formed the animals of study. Kids were maintained under intensive production Jeeva et.al., system with identical conditions of feeding and management. s were recorded at monthly intervals up to six months of age. Effect of the genetic group, sire, month of birth and sex on the monthly body weight up to six months were analyzed using least squares analysis by LSM- LMW package (Harvey, 1985). The statistical model was Yijkm = µ +bi + Sr j:bi + Sxk + Mm+ e ijkmn Yijkm - observation of the n th progeny of i th breed with j th sire nested in i th breed of k th sex on m th month., µ -population mean, bi - Effect of i th breed, Sr j:bi - effect of j th sire nested in i th breed, Sxk - Effect of K th sex, Mm - effect of m th month of birth, e ijkmn - random error. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Least squares mean partitioning the effect of breed, sire, month of birth and sex on body weights at first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth months of age among AM and BAM kids are presented in Table 1. Effects of genetic group on body weights were found to be highly significant at first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth months among AM and BAM kids (P?0.01). In all ages BAM kids had higher body weights compared to AM kids. At first month, the average weight of BAM kids was 6.01 kg while it was only 2.87 kg in AM kids. At two months BAM kids weighed 8.92 kg while AM kids had 3.05 kg. The highly significant superiority of BAM kids continued during the entire period of experiment. At third, fourth, fifth and sixth months BAM kids weighed 11.65, 13.62, and 17.8 kg respectively while the corresponding body weights of AM kids were 4.5, 5.7, 5.84 and 6.81 kg. The comparative growth pattern among the two genetic groups are graphically presented in Fig.1. Results of the present study on the superiority of Boer half breds have been reported by Luo et al. (2000) while 205

3 comparing Boer and Spanish goats. Nimbkar et al. (2000) found significant superiority in body weight among Boer half breds in Maharashtra compared to local goats and reported that Boer half breds weighed 20.8 kg at 6 months. Similar influences of genetic groups on weight up to six months have been documented by Stephen and Rai (1995), among Mlabari, Alpine and Saanen crosses. The significant superiority of Boer half breds under humid tropical climate of Kerala has potential to be exploited in development of meat goat synthetics. This view on the superiority of Boer inheritance on body weights while developing meat goat synthetics find support from the reports of Glimp as early as in 1995 and recently by Shrestha and Fahmy in This result indicates feasibility of Boer breed, to be utilized in meat goat breeding programmes of the state. Sire effect was highly significant on the bodyweights at first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth months of age. Highest improvement in BW was noted by sire no. 103 followed by sire no Sire no. 103 had only one progeny but its growth rate was kg at 2 months, 26.4 kg at 4 months and kg at 6 months of age. Average body weight of 11 progenies of sire no. 109 was 9.5kg at 2 months, 14.2 kg at four months and kg at 6 months. Sanchez et al. (1994) and Goonewardene et al. (1997) also reported a highly significant sire effect on growth and carcass quality among Alpine and Boer goats. Nimbkar et al. (2000) concluded that sire effect was highly significant among Boer crosses in Maharashtra. The highly significant influence of sire on body weight of 6 months obtained in the present study is in close confirmity with the studies conducted among Boer crossbreds from different parts of the world. This finding is suggestive of additive genetic effect on body weight which is transmitted from sire to progeny from Boer bucks. This high genetic value of Boer bucks on body weight can be exploited in commercial meat goat 206 Evaluation of body weight... produ cti on. Intensive selecti on among t he crossbreds with rigorous progeny test and infusion of high genetic value of Boer buck germplasm appears to have the potential to transform meat goat industry in this state. Month of birth exerted a highly significant influence on the body weight of kids from first to six months of age. Kids born in December and January had highest growth rate from first to six month of age while the lowest growth rate was seen in kids born on February. Kids born in December had an average body weight of kg while those in February had 6.23 kg at six months. Influence of season and month of birth on the body weight of ki ds have been repo rted t o be significant (Sanjeevkumar, et al Stephen and Rai (1995), Singh et al. 2003). The present observation on the faster growth of kids born on December and January is in agreement with Stephen and Rai (1995) who observed that in Kerala, winter born kids had significantly higher body weight at 6 months. These results are not in agreement with report of Singh et al. (2003) and Sanjeevkumar et al. (1992) from North India. This possibly reflects on the climatological variations unique to humid tropics of Kerala. Marykutty and Nandakumar (2000), observed that temperature humidity index, an index of thermal stress on animals was lowest during the months of January and December. This might partly have contributed to the higher bodyweight among kids born during December and January. Sex of the kid was not found to be significant on the body weight from first to six months of age. The non significant influence of sex of the kid on body weight is in agreement with the finding of Stephen and Rai (1995) from Malabari and its crosses with Alpine and Saanen. However, Nimbkar et al. (2000) could find significant influence of sex on body weight among Boer and local kids in Maharashtra.

4 Jeeva et.al., Fig.1 from first to sixth month among AM and B x AM kids under Kerala tropics Table - 1 Least squares mean partitioning the effect of the breed sires within the breed, month of birth and sex on body weight (in Kg) at first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth months Source No. of observation at 1 st month at 2 nd month at 3 rd month at 4 th month Body weight at 5 th month Body weight at 6 th month Breed 100 P? ** P? NS P? ** P? ** P? ** p? ** AM ± ± ± ± ± ± 1.61 BAM ± ± ± ± ± ± 0.96 Sires 100 P? ** P?.4310NS P? ** P? ** P? ** p? ** Sire No ± ± ± ± ± ± 2.46 Sire No ± ± ± ± ± ± 2.16 Sire No ± ± ± ± ± ± 2.09 Sire no ± ± ± ± ± ± 2.18 Sire No ± ± ± ± ± ± Sire No ± ± ± ± ± ± 1.62 Sire no ± ± ± ± ± ± 1.43 Sire No ± ± ± ± ± ± 2.43 Sire No ± ± ± ± ± ± 1.85 Month of 100 P? ** P? ** P? ** P? ** P? ** p? ** birth January ± ± ± ± ± ± 1.38 February ± ± ± ± ± ± 3.07 April ± ± ± ± ± ± 1.78 May ± ± ± ± ± ± 1.30 July ± ± ± ± ± ± 1.59 December ± ± ± ± ± ± 1.41 Sex 100 P? NS P? NS P? NS P? NS P? NS P? NS Male ± ± ± ± ± ± 0.77 Female ± ± ± ± ± ±

5 Evaluation of body weight... REFERENCES Casey, N.H. and Niekirk, W.A. (1988). The Boer goat I. Origin, adaptability, performance testing, reproduction and milk production. Small Ruminant Research. 1(3): Glimp, H.A. (1995). Meat goat production and marketing. Journal of Animal Science. 73: Goonewardene, L.A., Day, P.A., Patrick, N. and Patrick, D. (1997). Crossbreeding with Alpine and Boer goats - growth and carcass traits. Small Ruminant Research. 4(2) : Harvey, W.R. (1985). Least squares mean analysis of data wi th unequal subclass members, USDA,ARS:1-4. Jithendrakumar. (2003). Genetic and environmental factors influencing growth rate and body weights up to 6 months in Malabari goats. M.V.Sc. Thesis. Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy, Thrissur. Kaura, R.L. (1952). Indian breeds of livestock (including Pakisthan breeds). 3 rd ed. Prem Publishers, Lucknow. pp Luo, J., Sahlu, T., Cameron, M. and Goetsch A.L. (2000). Growth of Spanish, Boer x Angora and Boer x Spanish kids fed with milk replacer. Small Ruminant Research. 36(20): Marykutty,T and Nandakumar, P. (2000). Factors influencing litter traits and body weight up to 12 weeks among temperate rabbit breeds in humid tropics. World Rabbit Science. 8(2): Mukundan, G. (1980). Genetic studies on some economically important production characteristics in Malabari breed of goats and it s exo tic crosses. P hd. Thesis, Indi an Veterinary Research Institute. Rohilkand University, Bereilly. Nimbkar, C.,Ghalsasi, P.,Nimbkar, B. (2000). Crossbreeding with the Boer goat to improve economic returns from small holders goat in India. Seventh International Conference on Goats, 7-8 May, 2000, France. Abstract: 20. Sanchez, F., Montaldo, V. and Juraz, L. (1994). Environmental and genetic effects on birth weight in graded up goat kids. Canadian Journal of Animal Sciences. 74: Sanjeevkumar, Bhat, P.N. and Palia S.K. (1992). Genetic and non genetic factors affecting body weights and measurements in Jamnapari goats. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences. 62(9): Shrestha, J.N.B., Fahmy, M.H. (2007). Breeding goats for meat production: 2 Crossbreeding and formation of composite population. Small Ruminant Research. 67(2): Singh, D.K., Narendrakumar and Singh, L.B. (2003). Studies on the relative growth rate and body weight at withers of Black Bengal and its half bred goats. Indi an Vet eri nary Jou rnal. 80: Stephen, M. and Rai, A.V. (1995). of Malabari goats and its crosses with Alpine and Saanen breeds at 6 and 12 months of age. Indian Journal of Animal Sciences. 65(10):

JUVENILE GENETIC EVALUATION AND SELECTION FOR DAIRY GOATS

JUVENILE GENETIC EVALUATION AND SELECTION FOR DAIRY GOATS INTRODUCTION Traditional genetic improvement schemes for dairy animals involve progeny testing of sires. This traditional approach can give accurate