An assessment of the reproductive performance of estrus synchronized West African Dwarf (WAD) does using medroxyl-progestrone acetate (MPA)

Abstract

This study was carried out to assess the reproductive performance of cycling West African Dwarf does as well as to assess the efficacy of medroxyl-progestrone acetate, an estrus synchronizing drug, that
has the advantage of being administered orally and intramuscularly. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design using 40 cycling does divided into five experimental treatment groups.
The results of the experiment show that estrus behavior in the does was significantly (P<0.05) influenced by the dosage and route of drug administration. On the other hand, other reproductive traits
assessed such as gestation length (days), litter size at birth, birth weight of kids (Kg) and weaning weight (Kg) were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by the drug. These results show that there is good prospect in the use of medroxyl-progestrone acetate orally and intramuscularly in synchronizing estrus in cycling WAD does.