EVALUATION OF PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCES OF BLACK BENGAL GOATS IN RAJSHAHI GOVERNMENT GOAT DEVELOPMENT FARM IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

Background: The Black Bengal goat (BBG) is well adapted food animals with profitable productive and reproductive traits being naturally reared to enhance economic status and food security in rural people. Bangladesh government has taken program through establishment of ‘Government Goat Development Farms’ (GGDF) to enhance the goat rearing activities of the smallholders at rural level but the research reports on the productive and reproductive performances of goats in these GGDF are very limited. Objective: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the productive and reproductive performances of the BBG reared in semi-intensive system at the Rajshahi GGDF Materials and Methods: The Rajshahi GGDF had 398 goat populations of which 121 does were selected to study the productive and reproductive performances during the period from July 2010 to June 2011. The age of first estrus, conception rate by natural service, gestation length, post-partum heat, kidding interval, litter size, survivability of kids, morbidity and mortality of kids and their seasonal influence were studied. Results: The age of young female BBG showed 1st estrus varied from 180 to 270 with an average of 204  27 days. The conception rate varied from 88 to 100 with an average of 97% with natural services. The gestation length varied from 145 to 182 with an average of 150  5 days. The post-partum heat period varied from 60 to 90 days with an average of 69  7 days. The kidding interval varied from 199 to 268 with an average of 219  13 days. The litter size varied from 1 to 3 with an average of 2. Out of 234 kids borne, 47.44% were male and 52.56% female with higher mortality in male (10.81%) than female (5.69%) with an overall average mortality of 8.12%. There was no significant influence of season and parity on the birth weight of kids. However, the heavier birth weight of kids was recorded in male (1.38 kg) than female (1.17kg) kids. The birth of twin kids (56.41%) was found significantly (p < 0.0001) highest in comparison to triplets (26.92%), single (11.54%) and quadruplet (5.13%). Conclusions: The results support promising breeding and reproductive efficiency of BBG under local environmental conditions and therefore, there is a need to be improved milk yield of dam and control of morbidity and mortality in BBG kids. It may be concluded that the productive and reproductive performances of the BBG reared by using semi-intensive system of management appears to be encouraging at the Rajshahi GGDF which could be extended and compared to research findings with other four GGDF in Bangladesh.