title: Kid's growth and dairy performances of pure breeds and crossed caprine genotypes in the coastal oases of southern Tunisia.
abstract: A data issued from 16 years performances schedule of local goat, Alpine, Damascus, Murciana and crossed groups was used to study the genotypes productive behaviour under Tunisian oases conditions. The aim is to evaluate the possibilities of local goat productivity improvement by cross breeding in intensive mode and also, to choose the better improving breed and the propice crossing level. So, data of periodic individual weighing was used to estimates kid's weight at some standard ages and dairy performances such as, daily milk average, total production by lactation and milking period of studied genetic goats groups. Statistical analysis of about 1928 kid's weights and 1923 individual goat milking shows that, the cross breeding allows to improve the growth performances since the first generation with respect to local population production. ANOVA test shows an important effect of genotypes and environment upon kid's weights (p < 0.01). The kid's weight average at birth and at 120 days age was about 3.49 and 15.78 kg, respectively. The cross breeding second generation allows the better improvement of local goat potentialities kid's weight at 120 days reaches 16.19 kg for Damascus x local genotype. The dairy production with this generation is, about 248 kg for the Alpine one, of 181 kg for Damascus and 190 kg for Murciana, is only 137 kg by lactation for the local breed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Elevage et de la Faune Sauvage des Régions Arides et Désertiques Institut des Régions Arides, Médenine, Tunisia.
authors.forename: Amor
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gaddour
authors.forename: Sghaier
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Najari
authors.forename: Mabrouk
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ouni
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D003612:Dairying; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006041:Goats / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014416:Tunisia