Original research article
Effect of Age, Parity, Breed and their Interactions on Litter Size in Nigerian Indigenous Goat Breeds
2023, 88 (4) p. 337-341
Ibifiri Prekuna Briggs, OLUBamidele Oluwaseun Durojaiye, Omolara Latifat Alarape, Martha Nchang Bemji, Mathew Wheto, Ikechukwu Joseph James
Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of age, parity, breed and their interactions on litter size in Nigerian indigenous goat breeds. One hundred and eighty-five animal records: 87 West African Dwarf, 70 Red Sokoto and 28 Sahel goats from 2013 to 2019 collected on three farms were used for this study. Analysis of variance was used to analyse litter size variation in observed goat breeds. The average litter size for all studied indigenous breeds was 1.52. Breed and age significantly (P < 0.05) affected the litter size of goats, whereas parity did not significantly (P > 0.05) affect litter size. West African Dwarf and Red Sokoto breeds had a higher number of kids than Sahel breed. The results show a significant difference (P < 0.05) in litter size among does of different ages. Older does had larger litter sizes than younger does. With the findings of this study, it could be concluded that Nigerian indigenous goat breeds have good prolificacy and achieve high kidding rates. More conscious efforts should be made to include them in well-structured breeding programmes for conservation and multiplication purposes.
Keywords
goat, litter size, indigenous, Red Sokoto, Sahel, West African Dwarf
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