The Effect of Feeding with Different Levels of Cannula as a Fat Supplement in the Initial Diet on the Performance and Ruminal and Blood Metabolites of Early Weaning Goats in Mahabadi

In order to achieve high productivity, goats should be introduced into controlled breeding systems after birth; in this case, goats with a weight of about 30 kilograms are sent to the slaughterhouse due to the high quality of the carcass, more customer-friendliness and has higher nutrients. Also the milk of mother goats is sold, which is very important from the economic aspect for livestock breeders and increases productivity. Therefore, early weaning and using starters with high energy levels can be a practical solution in reaching the target weight of kids as soon as possible.

This experiment was performed to investigate the effect of feeding with different levels of Cannula as a fat supplement in the initial diet on the function and rumen and blood metabolites of early weaning in Mahabadi goats. The number of 20 males and females Mahabadi goats were fed with mother’s milk for 4 weeks after birth. Further, the goats were randomly divided into 4 groups of 5 heads and after the acclimation period for 2 weeks, they were fed experimental diets for tow month in a completely randomized design. Experimental diets included starter feed with concentrate to forage ratio of 10:90 and had different amounts of Cannula (3, 4.5 and 6 percent) as fat source.

The results showed that the effect of treatments on dry matter intake and weight gain of goats was significant (p<0.05). The highest amount of feed intake and weight gain was observed in the treatment of 3% of Cannula. Digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, ether extract, crude protein as well as ruminal pH was not affected by experimental treatments; However, the digestibility of neutral detergent fiber in 3% Cannula treatment was more than 4.5 and 6% (p<0.05). Blood glucose and cholesterol levels showed a significant decrease in all treatments compared to the control group (p<0.05).

In general, it can be concluded that early weaning of goats by feeding with starter ration and Cannula can improve feed intake and weight gain and consequently cause the desired weight to be reached earlier; therefore, the use of 3% Cannula with 87% starter concentrate in feeding of Mahabadi pre-weaned goats is recommended.