• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.63-67
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• 2012

Congenital $Neospora$ $caninum$ infection was diagnosed in two Saanen goat kids from two distinct herds with a history of abortion and weak newborn goat kids in the Southern region of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The first kid was weak at birth, had difficulty to rise and was unable to nurse. Gross lesions of porencephaly and hydrocephalus ex vacuo were seen. Multifocal necrosis, gliosis and non-supurative encephalitis were observed in the brain. Several parasitic cysts with a thick wall that reacted strongly only with polyclonal antiserum to $Neospora$ $caninum$ were seen in the cerebral cortex, brain stem and cerebellum. The second kid was born from a $Neospora$ $caninum$ seropositive mother that aborted in the last pregnancy. It was born without clinical signs. The diagnosis of neosporosis was based on antibody titer of 1:800 to $N.$ $caninum$ by indirect fluorescence antibody test obtained from blood collected before the goat kid ingested the colostrum and $Neospora$ $caninum$ DNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced from placenta. This is the first report of neosporosis in goats in the southeast region of Brazil.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.37-40
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• 1993

This study was conducted to measure the improvement in nutritive value of rice straw by treatment with urine of goat under different temperatures. Straw samples were japonica I (comprising 15 varieties with culms longer than 123 cm and mean silica content of 13.0%), japonica II (comprising 20 varieties with culms less than 87 cm and mean silica content of 13.7%), indica I (Java 14 variety with a high content of silica of 13.9%) and indica II (comprising IR-8 and IR-20 varieties with a low content of silica of 11.0%). Urine was collected from four Japanese Saanen goats fed alfalfa hay. The different straws were sprayed with urine at the rate of 1 ml/g straw DM, put in double layer plastic bags, sealing and stored for 4 weeks at either $20^{\circ}C$ (GU-20) or $40^{\circ}C$ (GU-40). The in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) and organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) of the straws were improved by the GU-40 treatment (13.5% and 13.2%, but the GU-20 treatment had little effect of digestibility (1.5% and -0.2%) except with the low silica indica II varieties. The GU-40 treatment tended to decrease NDF and hemicellulose content of straws. Crude protein content of the straws was improved by both the GU-20 and GU-40 treatments. It was concluded that treatment of rice straw with goat urine at $40^{\circ}C$ for 4 weeks improved the crude protein content and digestibility in vitro, the greatest improvement occurring with straws of lowest digestibility in the untreated state.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1069-1085
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• 2011

In large-type goats that were fed on dry forage twice daily, dry forage intake was markedly suppressed after 40 min of feeding had elapsed. The objective of this study was to clarify whether or not increases in plasma osmolality and subsequent thirst sensations produced by dry forage feeding suppress dry forage intake. Eight large-type male esophageal- and ruminal-fistulated goats (crossbred Japanese Saanen/Nubian, aged 3 to 6 years, weighing $72.3{\pm}2.74$ kg) were used in two experiments conducted under sham feeding conditions. The animals were fed ad libitum a diet of roughly crushed alfalfa hay cubes for 2 h from 10:00 to 12:00 h during two experiments. Water was withheld during feeding in both experiments but was available for a period of 30 min after completion of the 2 h feeding period. In experiment 1, an intraruminal infusion of artificial parotid saliva (RIAPS) in the control replenished saliva lost via the esophageal fistula and an intraruminal infusion of hypertonic solution (RIHS) in the treatment was carried out in order to reproduce the effects of changing salt content due to feed entering the rumen. In experiment 2, the RIHS control was conducted in the same manner as the RIHS treatment of experiment 1. The treatment group consisted of RIHS-with an intravenous infusion of artificial mixed saliva (VIAMS) treatment that was carried out for 3 h to prevent increases in plasma osmolality during feeding. The results of the RIHS treatment in experiment 1 showed that ruminal fluid osmolality increased and then an increase in plasma osmolality was observed. This resulted in the production of thirst sensations and the reduction of cumulative dry forage intake to 43.3% (p<0.05) of the RIAPS control. The results of the RIHS-VIAMS treatment in experiment 2 indicated that ruminal fluid osmolality was the same as the RIHS control but plasma osmolality significantly decreased, and thirst level was markedly reduced. This caused a significant increase of 31.4% (p<0.05) in cumulative dry forage intake in the RIHS-VIAMS treatment compared to the RIHS control. These results indicate that increases in ruminal fluid osmolality during dry forage feeding indirectly suppresses dry forage intake by causing an increase in plasma osmolality and subsequently inducing thirst sensations. The results of the present study suggest that marked decreases in dry forage intake after 40 min of feeding are caused by increases in plasma osmolality and subsequent thirst sensations produced by dry forage feeding.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.461-465
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• 2002

Nine microsatellite loci were analyzed in 84 random individuals to characterize the genetic variability of three domestic goat breeds found in Korea and China: Korean goat, Chinese goat and Saanen. Allele diversity, heterozygosity, polymorphism information content, F-statistics, indirect estimates of gene flow (Nm) and Nei's standard distances were calculated. Based on the expected mean heterozygosity, the lowest genetic diversity was exhibited in Korean goat ($H_E$=0.381), and the highest in Chinese goat ($H_E$=0.669). After corrections for multiple significance tests, deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were statistically significant over all populations and loci, reflecting the deficiencies of heterozygotes (global $F_{IS}$=0.053). Based on pairwise FST and Nm between different breeds, there was a great genetic differentiation between Korean goat and the other two breeds, indicating that these breeds have been genetically subdivided. Similarly, individual clustering based on the proportion of shared alleles showed that Korean goat individuals formed a single cluster separated from the other two goat breeds.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2013

Two digestion trials, one with sheep and another with goats, were conducted to evaluate the long-term bias (LTB) of the indigestible dry matter (iDM), indigestible neutral detergent fiber (iNDF) and indigestible acid detergent fiber (iADF) internal markers. The study used eight Santa In$\hat{e}$s castrated male sheep (average body weight of 16.6 kg) distributed in two $4{\times}4$ Latin squares and eight Saanen castrated male goats (average body weight of 22.6 kg) distributed in two $4{\times}4$ Latin squares. The experiments were conducted simultaneously, and the animals were housed in 1.2 $m^2$ individual pens with wood-battened floors equipped with individual feeders and drinkers. The animals received isonitrogenous diets that were offered ad libitum and contained 14% crude protein and 70% sugar cane (with 0, 0.75, 1.5 or 2.25% CaO, in natural matter percentage), corrected with 1% urea and 30% concentrate. The experiment consisted of four experimental periods of 14 d each, with the feed, leftovers and feces sampled on the last four days of each period. The marker concentrations in the feed, leftovers and fecal samples were estimated by an in situ ruminal incubation procedure with a duration 240 h. The relationship between the intake and excretion of the markers was obtained by adjusting a simple linear regression model, independently from the treatment (diets) fixed effects and Latin squares. For both the sheep and goats, a complete recovery of the iDM and iNDF markers was observed (p>0.05), indicating the absence of LTB for these markers. However, the iADF was not completely recovered, exhibiting an LTB of -9.12% (p<0.05) in the sheep evaluation and -3.02% (p<0.05) in the goat evaluation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.1712-1720
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• 2014

Little is known about the gender differences in energetic requirements of goats in early life. In this study, we determined the energy requirements for maintenance and gain in intact male, castrated male and female Saanen goat kids using the comparative slaughter technique and provide new data on their body composition and energy efficiency. To determine the energy requirements for maintenance, we studied 21 intact males, 15 castrated males and 18 females ($5.0{\pm}0.1kg$ initial body weight (BW) and $23{\pm}5d$ of age) using a split-plot design with the following main factors: three genders (intact males, castrated males, and females) and three dry matter intake levels (ad libitum, 75% and 50% of ad libitum intake). A slaughter group included three kids, one for each nutritional plane, of each gender, and all three animals within a group were slaughtered when the ad libitum kid reached 15 kg in BW. Net energy requirements for gain were obtained for 17 intact males, eight castrated males and 15 females ($5.1{\pm}0.4kg$ BW and $23{\pm}13d$ of age). Animals were fed ad libitum and slaughtered when they reached 5, 10, and 15 kg in BW. A digestion trial was performed with nine kids of each gender to determine digestible energy, metabolizable energy and energy metabolizability of the diet. Our results show no effect of gender on the energy requirements for maintenance and gain, and overall net energy for maintenance was $205.6kJ/kg^{0.75}$ empty body weight gain (EBW) ($170.3kJ/kg^{0.75}$ BW) from 5 to 15 kg BW. Metabolizable energy for maintenance was calculated by iteration, assuming heat production equal to metabolizable energy intake at maintenance, and the result was $294.34kJ/kg^{0.75}$ EBW and $k_m$ of 0.70. As BW increased from 5 to 15 kg for all genders, the net energy required for gain increased from 9.5 to 12.0 kJ/g EBW gain (EWG), and assuming $k_g=0.47$, metabolizable energy for gain ranged from 20.2 to 25.5 kJ/g EWG. Our results indicate that it is not necessary to formulate diets with different energetic content for intact male, castrated male and female Saanen goat kids weighing from 5 to 15 kg.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.63-68
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• 1994

432 samples of raw goat milk were analyzed for sodium, calcium, potassium, chloride, and ashes content. The samples came from 16 pure breed goats, 2 to 4 years of age kept in semi-feedlots. They were basically fed soy bran, cotton bran, triturated Guandu hay and disintegrated corn with its straw and corncob (according to requirements for due preservation and production). The mean values found were: sodium, $45{\pm}10.2mg%$ (24.5-65.6 mg%); potassium, $206{\pm}44.7mg%$ (116.6-295 mg%); calcium, $111{\pm}22mg%$ (66.5-155.4 mg %); ashes, $0.82{\pm}0.06mg%$ (0.68-0.95%); chloride, $235{\pm}39mg%$ (157-313 mg%). Results were related to: a) breed, the Brown and the Saanen revealed superior values for calcium and ashes, b) climate, which in the rain season led to higher contents of sodium, potassium, and calcium when compared to the local dry season, c) time of lactation which increasingly affected the contents of calcium, sodium and ashes, and d) the time between milking, when higher concentration of chloride and ashes were mostly concentrated in the evening and calcium in the morning. These results have important implications in the handling and management of the goat herd.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.555-559
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• 1993

Studies at freezing point depression (FPD) for goat milk are described in this paper. The 432 samples of raw goat milk collected in a period of two years and analysed by the use of an electronic cryoscope gave a mean value of FPD: $-0.565{\pm}0.01^{\circ}C$. Statistical significant differences were found between the morning and evening milk. The evening milk showed better quality considering the lactose and others dissolved solutes. Among the Brown, Saanen and Anglo-nubian goats, the greatest increase in FPD, occurred in the Anglo-nubian breed. The statistical analysis revealed a significant breed difference (p<0.05), when climate variation was observed. The superior and inferior values found to the FPD of the caprine milk (-0.545 to $-0.585^{\circ}C$), is important in establishing regional rules, to improve the quality control criteria and legal interpretation of standards found in the pertinent legislation. The results are also important to improve herd management so that one can increase the animal production which will affect the technological composition, and the nutritional characteristics of the resultant products.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.1091-1099
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• 2022

Objective: The aim of this work was the characterization of the qualitative aspects of meat obtained from Teramana goats, an Italian indigenous breed of the Abruzzo region. Specifically, the study included a comparison with meat samples deriving from Saanen goat kids reared in the same environment and applying the same feeding protocol. Methods: Upon reaching about 7 months of age the animals were slaughtered and samples of muscle tissue were collected to be analyzed. Specifically, meat samples were subjected to evaluations of the physical parameters, including color and the meat ability to retain water, in addition to chemical evaluations that were focused to the determination of the total lipids amount, fatty acids composition, lipid oxidation, and volatile profile. Results: The meat samples obtained from the indigenous breed showed a less intense reddish color and no significant variations for the muscle tissue tendency to retain water, both regarding fresh and cooked meat. Several differences were instead observed in the fatty acid profile. The Teramana samples were richer in saturated fatty acids (p<0.01) and interestingly showed higher concentrations of rumenic acid (p<0.05), a conjugate of linoleic acid that has been associated with important health benefits for the consumers. Another important finding for these meat samples was the marked resistance to oxidative events, as evidenced by the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances-test (p<0.05) and by the characterization of the volatile profile that highlighted a strong reduction in the relative percentage of hexanal (p<0.05), commonly associated to lipid oxidation and the development of unpleasant aromatic notes. Conclusion: The collected data, therefore appeared useful for the valorization of the food product derived from the Teramana goat, although no sensory information has been collected to define the degree of acceptability by the consumers.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.119-124
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• 2013

This study was conducted to investigate meat quality and sensory characteristics between castrated and non-castrated dairy goats. Dairy goat of Saanen breeds was slaughtered at an age of 6 mon. Then, characteristics of dairy goat meat were analyzed to chemical compositions, collagen content, pH, meat color, cooking loss, water-holding capacity, shear force, protein solubility, and myofibrillar protein fractions by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Also, odor from dairy goat meats was analyzed by sensory evaluation and volatile substances by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). As a result, the chemical compositions and physicochemical characteristics were not significantly different between castrated and non-castrated dairy goats meat. Also, there is no difference protein solubility (sarcoplasmic, myofibrillar and total protein) and protein fraction by SDS-PAGE. Sensory evaluation results in odour scores are highly (p<0.05) non-castration dairy goat meat better than castration. As a result, overall palatability was higher (p<0.05) in castrated goat meat when compared with non-castrated one. The indole and octadecanoic acid by GC-MS based on sensory evaluation results were only detected in non-castrated dairy goat meat. Therefore, distribution for goat meats castrated compared to non-castrated dairy goat meat is expected to be able to get a good response to the Korean consumer.