Poster Presentation The Joint Annual Scientific Meetings of the Endocrine Society of Australia and the Society for Reproductive Biology 2017

Survey on feeding managements and reproductive status of different goat breeds in Peninsular Malaysia (#312)

Mashitah Shikh Maidin 1 , Norhazirah Abdul Halim 1 2 , Rosimah Nulit 1 2
  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  2. Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

In Malaysia, to meet the increase in local demand for goat products, more attention needs to be paid to reproductive performance. A nutrition-reproduction interactions has been highlighted by decades in sheep, where supplementation could affect reproductive system. Therefore, it is important to asses in general the scenario of feeding management and reproductive performance of female goats under semi- and intensive farming systems in Peninsular Malaysia. The study was conducted through in-person interviews, telephone interviews, or online-form with a purposive sample of series of 212 respondents who rearing Boer, Jamnapari, Katjang and Saanen. It is common that farmers have various goat breeds at their farm. Overall, from the surveys, from both goats rearing systems (semi- and intensive systems) the farmers tends to have Boers in their farms compared to other breeds. The survey indicated that majority of farmers (>50% of respondents) in all breeds groups preferred to feed the animals twice a day and the animals highly fed with pallet followed by mixed wild grasses and Napier grass. The farmers understand that the importance of protein and energy in pallet, could helps to increase energy allowance and perhaps improve kidding rate. While, in general, supplementation practices was significantly increased the kidding rate of Boer goats (Supplemented goats=1.30±0.09 vs. non-supplemented goats=0.99±0.07; P<0.05) but not in other breeds. Moreover, supplementation throughout pregnancy does not affects early and late abortion in all breeds (p>0.05). The abortion might be due to other factors such as limitation of space, excessive stress or infectious diseases. In conclusion, the feeding practices and type of feed given does not increase reproductive performance of female goats in both goat farming under semi-intensive or intensive systems. The findings suggest that better feeding regime is needed to improve reproductive performance of female goats, thus increase total profit of goat farming in Malaysia.