Effects of parity and body conditions score on oestrus expression and post-mating reproductive performances in Katjang crossbred goat following oestrus synchronisation

• Main Author: Intan Sofienaz Ahmad Fuad
• Format: UMK Etheses
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: QL Zoology
• Online Access: http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/10140/1/Intan%20Sofienaz%20Ahmad%20Fuad.pdf; http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/10140/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Kelantan

This study was conducted to assess the pre- and post-mating reproductive performances of Katjang crossbred doe and changes of progesterone concentration level during prooestrus, oestrus and dioestrus to indicate real oestrus based on the level of parity and body condition score (BCS). In this study, twenty-four non-pregnant does have been selected randomly and treated with 14-day CIDR protocol to synchronise oestrus. 24 h after CIDR removal, oestrus expressions had been observed visually, twice daily at 0800 and 1600, up to 72 h after CIDR removal. Pre-mating reproductive performance that had been measured was the oestrus expressions, which included standing heat (SH), mounted by other bucks but not standing (MBNS), vocalisation (VC), tail swagging (TS), and sniffing of the genital of other bucks (SGB). Throughout the observation of oestrus expressions, blood samples had been collected for further analysis of progesterone concentration. The post-mating data of reproductive performances that had been collected were pregnancy rate, abortion rate, mortality rate, litter size, litter birth weight and gestation length. Result based on analysis showed parity and BCS had no significant effect (p>0.05) on pre- and post-mating reproductive performance and progesterone concentration except for birth weight which had been affected by parity. However, the most reliable oestrus expression for prediction of pregnancy was standing heat, which was observed at 24 h post-CIDR removal, with the accuracy was up to 50%. Besides, the most critical oestrus expressions were following this sequence; SH>SGB>TS>MBNS>VC. Oestrus expressions were also highly intense during 24 h to 48 h post-CIDR removal, which dominated by parity≤2 (48 h), parity≥3 (24 h) and BCS≤3.5. The onset of oestrus was approximately at 33 h post–CIDR removal. However, parity had a caused significant effect (p<0.05) on birth weight of kid as does at parity≤2 have heavier birth weight. Progesterone concentration showed that up to 72 h post-CIDR removal, does only reach until oestrus phase and ovulated as early as 48 h to 57 h post-CIDR removal by BCS≥4.0 and parity≤2 as both groups reached lowest progesterone concentration respectively. From this study, it was found that the significant effect of birth weight reflected an optimum environment during gestation and good farm management applied to the doe and thus reduced mortality. The current finding suggested that it is highly recommended that the time of insemination starts at 60 h post-CIDR removal as ovulation occurs 36 hours after standing heat. As a conclusion, parity and BCS were very weak factors in measuring reproductive management due to greater influence of external factors such as weather, environment and farm management.