EFFECTS OF DIETARY ENERGY LEVELS DURING LATE PREGNANCY ON PERFORMANCE OF FEMALE BLACK BENGAL KIDS

Appropriate amount of dietary energy during late pregnancy plays crucial roles for better performance of both dam and kids. Due to a prolonged energy shortage of dam in this phase, kids encounter higher mortality rate. However, knowledge on the energy required by the Black Bengal goats during their last stage of pregnancy as well as its’ impact on performance of female kids remains unknown. The study aimed to analyze the effects of various dietary energy acquired in late gestation period on the weight during birth, rate of growth, weaning weight, physical measurements (heart girth, height at wither and body length), consumption of milk and age at puberty of female Black Bengal kids. Three isonitrogenous diets that contained three dissimilar levels of metabolizable energy i.e., low energy (8.67 MJ/Kg DM), medium energy (10.2 MJ/Kg DM) and high energy (11.73 MJ/Kg DM) were given to stall-fed female Black Bengal does (n=15) randomly. During the experiment, various data of kids including birth weight, weaning weight, rate of growth, length of body, heart girth, wither height of female kids underwent measurement and age of puberty were recorded. The difference among birth weights of the different treatment groups was insignificant. The live weight gain in high maternal energy group was significantly (p<0.05) higher than the low and medium groups. The heart girths, heights at wither and body lengths of high group were more than that of others. There was a positive relation between amount of milk consumed by kids and their growth performance. The kids belonging to the high maternal energy group were observed to consume significantly (p<0.05) more milk than others. The dams consuming high energy reached puberty comparatively earlier. To conclude, during late pregnancy, the level of dietary energy positively influenced the birth weight, growth rate, weaning weight, body measurements (heart girth, height at wither and body length), milk consumption and puberty of female kids.