Net mineral requirements for growth of Saanen goat kids in early life are similar among genders

Abstract

The current mineral requirements for growing goat kids are based on sheep and cattle studies without differentiating between the stages of development or gender. The aims of this study were to determine the net requirements for growth of Ca, P, Mg, Na and K of Saanen goat kids during the initial stages of growth and to analyse the effect of gender on the net requirements for growth of these macrominerals. Eighteen female, 19 intact male and 10 castrated male Saanen goat kids were studied. The kids were selected applying a completely randomized design and slaughtered when their body weight (BW) reached approximately 5, 10 and 15 kg to determine the mineral requirements for growth at these stages. The net mineral requirements for growth were similar among genders. The goat kids had slightly increased net requirements of Ca, P and Mg for growth with increasing BW from 5 to 15 kg. The net requirements for growth of Ca, P, Mg, Na and K ranged from 9.61 to 9.67 g/kg of BW gain, 7.14 to 7.56 g/kg of BW gain, 0.34 to 0.37 g/kg of BW gain, 1.26 to 1.13 g/kg of BW gain, 1.88 to 1.82 g/kg of BW gain as the animals grew from 5 to 15 kg respectively. In conclusion, when formulating diets for Saanen goat kids in early growth stage mineral levels do not need to adjusted based on gender.

Multivariate relationship among body protein, fat, and macrominerals of male and female Saanen goats using canonical correlation analysis

“…A dataset containing 274 individual records from four studies of protein body composition (Gomes, 2011;Almeida et al, 2015;Ferreira et al, 2015;Figueiredo et al, 2017) and from six studies of macromineral body composition (Ferreira, 2003;Figueiredo, 2011;Gomes et al, 2011;Soares, 2013;Santos Neto et al, 2016;Mendonça et al, 2017) of Saanen goats was developed. The studies were conducted in Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil (21º14'05" S, 48º17'09" W, and 595 m altitude).…”

Macromineral requirements of Holstein calves

“…For calves, accurate macromineral requirements have not been established yet, which leads to the use of a fixed concentration of minerals in starter and milk replacer (NRC, 2001), and specific data both for growth and maintenance are still needed. Recent studies with comparative slaughter aimed to estimate mineral requirements for different species and categories of ruminants (Pereira et al, 2016;Mendonça et al, 2017); however, advances as to these requirements for the nutrition of calves are scarce.…”