Oestrus behaviour and performance in vivo of Saanen goats raised in northeast of Brazil

In order to verify the oestrus activity and to observe the body weight of Saanen goats, when reared in intensive condition of Northeast Brazil during four different seasons, ten adult Saanen goats were used. In this experiment four climatic seasons were considered; early rainy (ER), late rainy (LR), early dry (ED) and late dry (LD). Oestrus behaviour was monitored twice a day (8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.) during all the experiment, using two vasectomised bucks. The oestrus cycles were quantified within each season and classified as short (< 17 days), normal (17-25 days) or long (> 25 days). The goats were weighed every seven days. During the late rainy season, a significant fall of the mean body weight of the animals was observed when compared to early rainy season. A larger percentage of goats in oestrus were observed during the late rainy season. Oestrus duration was longer in the late rainy and early dry season than in early rainy and late dry season. During the experiment, there were 12.0% of short cycles, 50.3% of normal cycles and 37.7% of long cycles. The percentages of abnormal cycles (short and long cycles), in relation to total cycles monitored in each season were 52, 58, 38 and 50% for early rainy, late rainy, early dry and late dry, respectively. From the results of this study it can be concluded that pen-fed Saanen goats do not show seasonality for oestrus behaviour. Rainfall appeared to be an extero-receptive factor influencing the quality of sexual activity and performance in these goats. Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-10T00:26:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CNPC2001Oestrousbehaviour.pdf: 78997 bytes, checksum: 0fa354f231c2c77231aa2f3c60e5a3af (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-08