Effect of bypass fat on growth and body condition score of male Beetal goats during summer

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of feeding rumen bypass fat on the growth of male Beetal goats. Twenty-seven male kids with an average bodyweight of 34 ± 1.8 kg (mean ± SD) and aged 12 to 15 months were randomly divided into three treatment groups under a completely randomized design. The treatments consisted of : i) CON, basal diet without added fat (basal diet of chopped sorghum with 0.75 kg concentrate per animal); ii) MF, basal diet with added fat at 2.5% of dry matter in concentrate (Energizer-RP10, Scothorn Nutrition, Malaysia); and iii) HF, basal diet with added fat at 5% of dry matter in concentrate. Dry matter intake (DMI) and faecal score were recorded daily. Live bodyweight was recorded fortnightly. Linear body measurements, which included wither height (WH), heart girth (HG), body length (BL), and body condition scores (BCS), were recorded monthly. The results indicated that the addition of bypass fat in concentrate did not affect DMI linearly. However, a quadratic trend of DMI was observed in response to fat addition (P <0.1). The average daily gain was similar for CON, MF, and HF treatment groups (P >0.05). Moreover, the addition of bypass fat did not affect the BCS, WH, HG, and BL. The HF group had a higher faecal score than the CON and MF groups (P <0.05). The current findings conclude that the addition of bypass fat in diets did not improve the growth performance of yearling Beetal male goats.

Keywords: average daily gain, body measurements, supplemental fat