Reproductive performance of West African Dwarf goats under guinea Savannah conditions

Abstract

There is a general paucity of information on the reproductive performance of small ruminants in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly, goats. A study was carried out at the National Goat Breeding Station to document the reproductive performance of West African dwarf goats. Data was obtained from the breeding records of 903 West African dwarf nanny goats collected between 2004-2013, during 14 breeding seasons for the estimation of conception rate, kidding rate and kidding percentage. The effects of season of breeding and parity of the doe on these reproductive performance parameters were determined using t-test (2 tailed). The results showed that the average conception rate, kidding rate and kidding percentage were 87.1%, 142.9% and 120.1%, respectively. For most (85.7%) of the breeding seasons studied, conception rate ranged from 60%-90%, while the remaining had conception rate of between 60-100%. Prolificacy and fecundity rates in the flock of West African dwarf goats for most of the seasons studied ranged from 110%-160% and 91%-130%, respectively. Season of breeding and parity of the doe had no significant effect (P>0.05) on conception rate, kidding rate and kidding percentage. Excepting fecundity rate, the goats used in the present study were found to be generally higher in reproductive performance than the observations in other studies.

 Keywords: Conception; Prolificacy; Fecundity; Season; Djallonké Doe;

                  Parity