Vol. 12, Special Issue 6 (2023)

Author(s):
Ajoy Das, Dilip Kumar Mandal and Asish Debbarma

Abstract:
This present investigates the influence of the ancillary housing structure (kid barrel) on the morphometric traits and skin fold thickness of Black Bengal goat kids during pre-weaning and post-weaning periods. For this study, pregnant Black Bengal does with similar breeding history and parity were selected and housed within the same shelter. Following the birth of the kids (n=12), they were randomly assigned to the control (n=6) and experiment (n=6) groups, alongside their respective mothers. The housing conditions for the control and experimental kids were generally the same, except for the experimental group which had access to a specially designed housing ancillary structure (kid barrel) that only allowed entry and exit for the kids, excluding the adults. Pre-weaning (P<0.01) and post-weaning weaning (P<0.05) corpus length was significantly higher in kids of the experimental group than in the control group. Pre-weaning body length was significantly (P<0.001) higher in the experimental group than in the control group. Similarly, pre-weaning and post-weaning traits viz. heart girth, rear girth, height at back, and height at wither were significantly (P<0.01) higher in kids of the experimental group than in the control group. Pre-weaning skin fold thickness (SFT) of the shoulder (P<0.05) and post-weaning SFT of the flank (P<0.05) and brisket (P<0.01) was significantly higher in kids of the experimental group than in the control group. We concluded that provision of ancillary housing structure (kid barrel) significantly influenced the body morphometric traits and skin fold thickness of the winter-born goat kids during both the pre-weaning and post-weaning stages. This study contributes valuable insights into the management practices for winter-born Black Bengal goat kids and emphasizes the importance of suitable housing structures (kid barrel) in enhancing their body morphometric traits and skin fold thickness.