Growth performance and rumen development in Malabari kids reared under different production systems.

In order to investigate the effect of rearing systems on growth and rumen development in Malabari male kids, 14 pre-weaned Malabari male kids of uniform morphological characters were randomly divided into two equal groups as T and T. Both the groups were reared intensively for 12 weeks whereby kids under T group were allowed to suckle their dams and provided green grass ad libitum. The kids under T were weaned at the age of 7 days and provided formulated semi-solid broiler goat concentrate diet through the feeding bottle and were not offered any grass/roughage. Parameters like live weight gain, daily weight gain and body measurements were studied to evaluate the growth performance. However, gastrointestinal tract morphometric studies and qualitative morphological analysis of rumen papillae were undertaken to measure the rumen development. The daily weight gain of kids under T was significantly (P ≤ 0.01) higher than the daily weight gain of kids under T. Also, the body measurements like height at withers, heart girth and body length were significantly (P ≤ 0.01) higher in T than in T. The rumen and abomasum were comparatively more developed in T than in T. The morphology of rumen papillae in both groups was different in size, shape and colour. The length, width, density and surface area of rumen papillae among kids in T were significantly (P ≤ 0.01) higher than those kids in T. The results of the present study indicated that the feeding of semi-solid broiler goat concentrate diet improved growth performance and early rumen development in kids.