Body composition of goat kids during sucking. Voluntary feed intake.
The body composition of thirty-eight Granadina goat kids was measured. Six animals were slaughtered at birth while the remainder were kept individually at an environmental temperature of 24 +/- 2 degrees and a relative humidity of 60 +/- 5%. They were given goat's milk or a milk-substitute at two planes of nutrition until 15 or 30 d of age and then slaughtered. The goat's milk and milk-substitute contained 260.4 and 222.0 g digestible protein/kg and 23.23 and 20.85 MJ metabolizable energy/kg respectively. Voluntary feed intake as metabolizable energy was a function of metabolic body-weight (kg W0.75), equivalent to 2.42 and 2.44 times the energy requirement for maintenance for goat's milk- and milk-substitute-fed animals respectively. There was a high degree of correlation between the empty-body concentration of dry matter, fat and energy and empty-body-weight (P less than 0.001) or animal age (P less than 0.001), and between body-weight and animal age (P less than 0.001). The relationships between empty-body composition and empty-body-weight were independent of type of milk or plane of nutrition. In contrast relationships between empty-body composition or empty-body-weight and animal age were affected by the type of milk and, over all, by the plane of nutrition. All these results show that in these animals any body-weight will have a similar composition, but it will be reached earlier or later depending on dietary regimen and always with the limitation of voluntary intake.
Sanz Sampelayo
M R
MR
Departamento de Fisiología Animal, Estación Experimental del Zaidin Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas), Granada, Spain.
Ruiz
I
I
Gil
F
F
Boza
J
J
D000821:Animal Feed; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D000833:Animals, Suckling; D001069:Appetite Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D001823:Body Composition; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology; D005526:Food, Formulated; D006041:Goats / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008892:Milk