No study yet is undertaken to measure pain caused by ear tagging in kid goats using ear postures. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to elucidate the effect of ear tagging procedure on pain in black Karadi kids using ear position and frequency of ear changes. Twenty black Karadi kids, aged 10-14 days, were used in this study. Ear postures were scored using focal sampling and recorded with instantaneous time sampling to measure the duration of each ear posture. Each kid was observed separately for 6 minutes before and 6 minutes after the ear tagging process with 30 seconds intervals. A total of 24 ear posture samples were recorded from each kid. Results revealed that Ear tagging significantly increased ears backward (P<0.01) and decreased ears plane (P<0.001). However, no significant effect of ear tagging was found on ears forward (P<0.19) and asymmetrical postures (P<0.43). In addition, number of ear posture changes was significantly (P<0.001) increased after ear tagging. It was concluded that observing ear postures of kids directly after painful husbandry procedures such as ear tagging is a reliable non-invasive method to assess pain caused by these painful methods and hence helps better understands animal welfare.

There is no study about changes in behaviour and peripheral temperature of kid goats undergoing ear tagging procedure. This study was designed to elucidate that pain caused by ear tagging affects peripheral temperatures and behavioural observations in Karadi kid goats. Nineteen native black goat kids, aged 10 – 14 days, were used in this study. Eye and nasal temperatures were recorded before the ear tagging process, and after ear tagging 5 periods in 30 minutes. Besides, the researchers observed each kid's behaviour for 30 minutes before ear tagging and 30 minutes after it, using focal sampling method and the data recorded with instantaneous time sampling to measure the duration and frequency of each behaviour of the kids. Results revealed that peripheral temperatures were significantly decreased for both eye (P≤0.01) and ear (P≤0.01) after ear tagging. The temperatures of both eye and ear decreased after tagging significantly (P≤0.01) for 30 minutes. The proportion of time kid goats spent normal standing and suckling the dam’s teat decreased whereas the proportion of time spent head-shaking increased after tagging. Significant differences were found between abnormal standing (P≤0.01) and vocalization (P≤0.01). It is concluded that ear tagging causes a considerable pain in kid goats and using surface temperatures and behaviour are useful indicators to approve it.

Twenty four Black goat does at 1st week post kidding were adapted to control diet for 2 weeks and then blocked into 4 groups (6 does/group) to be fed on one of the experimental diets (0, 5, 10 and 15% oak acorns) to study the effect of different levels of oak acorns on milk yield, milk composition and some serum biochemical traits. Results revealed that at 10th week of lactation, there was a significant increase in daily milk yield in does fed on 15% oak acorns. In contrast the group fed on 15% oak acorns exhibited a significant decrease in milk protein and solid non-fat contents at 10th week of lactation. The milk lactose yield was significantly higher in group fed on 15% oak acorns at 10th week of lactation. The serum glucose concentration at 8th week of lactation was significantly higher in does fed on 10% oak acorns while at 10th week; it was significantly higher in does fed 5% oak acorns. It could be concluded that feeding does on diets containing 15% oak acorns caused a significant increase in daily milk yield of Black goats and a significant decrease in milk protein content.

To examine the effect of supplementation of varying levels of the oil of Nigella sativa in Karadi lambs rations on nutrients digestibility, blood metabolites, and some rumen parameters, 18 Karadi lambs were allocated into three groups, and the first group was fed a basal diet as control whereas, the second (T2) and the third (T3) groups fed the basal diet being supplemented with 0.15 and 0.30% of DM Nigella sativa oil (NSO) respectively. All animals were fed individually on 1.5 kg/lamb/day. Results showed that dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), organic matter (OM), and crude fiber (CF) digestibility was not affected (P>0.05) by NSO supplementation. Also, supplementing NSO had no significant effect on serum total protein (TP), albumin (Alb), globulin (Glb), triglycerides (TG), cholesterol (Chol), high density lipoprotein (HDL), and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) concentrations. There was an increasing trend (P=0.07) in LDL concentration of lambs fed on T2 and T3 as compared to control. Neither treatment nor interaction between time and treatment had an effect on rumen fluid pH. A significant decrease (P=0.008) was noted in rumen fluid pH value with the advances of time post feeding. The ammonia-nitrogen concentration in rumen fluid was generally lower upon oil supplementation, and it was significantly (P=0.03) decreased in the T2 group at 4 hours following morning feeding. It can be concluded that supplementing with 0.15 and 0.3% /DM of NSO showed a reduction in rumen ammonia-nitrogen while it had no effects on nutrient digestibility and blood metabolites in Karadi lambs.

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of feeding different levels of oak acorns on growth and some carcass characteristics of Awassi lambs. Twenty lambs were blocked into four groups (5 lambs/ group) according to live body weight and fed on one of the experimental diets (0, 5, 10 and 15% oak acorns). The results showed no effect of dietary treatments on live body weight throughout the period of study, also there were no effects of treatments on carcass traits except for rib-eye muscle area which was largest in the group fed on 5% acorns. It could be concluded that feeding Awassi lambs on ground oak acorns has no adverse effects on growth performance and health condition.

This study aimed to examine the response of sheep and goats to dietary effects of feeding different levels of oak (Quercus aegilops) acorns in terms of nutrient digestibility, nitrogen balance, rumen function and some serum metabolites. The study was conducted over 4 periods each of 15 days; in each period, rams and bucks were allocated to one of the dietary treatments (control, 5, 10 and 15% oak acorns). Rams and bucks exhibited different responses to the effects of dietary levels of oak acorns. The digestibility coefficient of DM was reduced in both rams and bucks upon feeding acorns, but this decline was significant (P≤0.05) only in rams fed 10 and 15% acorns as compared to rams fed control. Also, the rams and bucks showed numerical decrease in digestibility coefficients of OM, CP, CF, and NPN. The experimental treatments had no effects on nitrogen balance parameters. Bucks exhibited significantly (P≤0.05) higher concentrations of rumen ammonia-nitrogen before, 4 hours and 6 hours after morning feeding. The rumen pH value was significantly (P≤0.05) by the animal species only at the time before morning feeding. The serum metabolites were not affected by the level of acorns in the diet. The results of this study indicate that goats are superior in digesting diets containing oak acorns up to 15%.

No abstract

The aim of the current study was to determine whether adding zinc to water will improve lamb performance and behavior during a hot climate. In this experiment, twenty seven lambs were housed indoor in individual pens (1.50 x 1.30m). Zinc was added to the fresh drinking water in three different levels namely T1 (0 mg Zn/day), T2 (36 mg Zn/day) and T3 (72 mg Zn/day). Rumination (m/h), feeding time (m/h), number of visiting feeds (n/h), standing time (m/h), lying time (m/h) and standing bouts (n/h) were recorded three times a day by visual observation. Dry matter intake (kg/d), drinking water intake (litter/day), daily live weight gain and feed conversion ratio were also recorded. The current results indicated that rumination, feeding duration, and the visiting feed number were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) higher in T2 than T1 and T3 groups. However, no-differences were noticed among T1, T2 and T3 groups regarding standing time, lying time, standing bouts, dry matter intake, water intake, daily live weight gain, and feed conversion ratio. In conclusion, adding zinc to fresh drinking water improved rumination, feeding duration and the feed visiting number.