Abstract:
This study was conducted to evaluate blood profiles and it relationship with milk production
traits in agropastoral goats. Atotal of 250 does whose parity were between 1-6 and average
weight of 28.84kg were used for this study, the animals were milked twice a week, and milk
production traits investigated were average daily yield (ADY), total yield (TY), peak day (PD),
peak yield (PY), lactation length (LL), and last day yield (LDY). Five milliliter (5ml) of blood
was collected from each of the sampled animals by jugular venipuncture, using needle and
syringe. 2mls of each blood sample were poured into a bijou bottle containing ethylene diamine
tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) for hematological evaluation which were Pack Cell volume (PCV) and
haemoglobin concentration (Hb). The remaining samples were allowed to coagulate to produce
sera for blood chemistry analysis. The separated serum samples were properly labeled and stored
at -20oC till further analysis. Serum samples were analyzed for different biochemical profile
namely sodium (Na), total protein (TP) albumin, globulin and glucose. Correlations between
blood profiles and milk production traits were obtained using Statistical Analysis system. The
results indicated that the agropastoral goats were within the range of normal reference values for
goats (28.47% PCV, 9.49g/dl Hb136.40mmol/L Na, 64.44g/l Total protein, 31.12 g/l Albumin,
33.12 g/l globulin and 4.44 g/l glucose). The correlation between blood constituents and milk
production traits revealed that PCV, Hb and glucose were positively correlated with milk yield
traits. Thus suggesting that increase or improvement in these blood parameters may increase
milk production in goats |
