title: Energy requirements for maintenance and growth of male saanen goat kids.
abstract: The aim of study was to determine the energy requirements for maintenance and growth of forty-one Saanen, intact male kids with initial body weight (BW) of 5.12±0.19 kg. The baseline (BL) group consisted of eight kids averaging 5.46±0.18 kg BW. An intermediate group consisted of six kids, fed for ad libitum intake, that were slaughtered when they reached an average BW of 12.9±0.29 kg. The remaining kids (n = 27) were randomly allocated into nine slaughter groups (blocks) of three animals distributed among three amounts of dry matter intake (DMI; ad libitum and restricted to 70% or 40% of ad libitum intake). Animals in a group were slaughtered when the ad libitum-treatment kid in the group reached 20 kg BW. In a digestibility trial, 21 kids (same animals of the comparative slaughter) were housed in metabolic cages and used in a completely randomized design to evaluate the energetic value of the diet at different feed intake levels. The net energy for maintenance (NEm) was 417 kJ/kg(0.75) of empty BW (EBW)/d, while the metabolizable energy for maintenance (MEm) was 657 kJ/kg(0.75) of EBW/d. The efficiency of ME use for NE maintenance (km) was 0.64. Body fat content varied from 59.91 to 92.02 g/kg of EBW while body energy content varied from 6.37 to 7.76 MJ/kg of EBW, respectively, for 5 and 20 kg of EBW. The net energy for growth (NEg) ranged from 7.4 to 9.0 MJ/kg of empty weight gain by day at 5 and 20 kg BW, respectively. This study indicated that the energy requirements in goats were lower than previously published requirements for growing dairy goats.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Jaboticabal, SP14884-900, Brazil .
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Medeiros
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Jaboticabal, SP14884-900, Brazil .
authors.forename: K T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Resende
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Jaboticabal, SP14884-900, Brazil .
authors.forename: I A M A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Teixeira
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Universidade Federal do Piauí (UFPI), Bom Jesus, PI 64900-000, Brazil .
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Production, Universidad Nacional Del Nordeste (UNNE), Corrientes, 3400, Argentina .
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Yáñez
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Universidade Federal de Sergipe (UFS), Aracaju, SE 49100-000, Brazil .
authors.forename: A C D
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Ferreira
keywords: Body Composition; Comparative Slaughter; Dairy Goats; Feed restriction; Heat Production