Retrospective study on kid mortality and associated risk factors of kid survival of newly introduced Boer goat breed in North Shewa Ethiopia

E Alemnew, E Yitagesu, S Goshme and D Aydefruhim

Debre Birhan Agricultural Research Centre, Po. Box 112, Debre Birhan, Ethiopia
alemnewenyiew@gmail.com

Abstract

Central Highland Goats were crossed with Boer to evaluate productivity, reproduction potential, and disease incidence and to assess their suitability for meat production by small-scale farmers and households in Ethiopia. The study was conducted in Debre Birhan Agricultural Research Centre; Ataye Boer Nucleus Site from January 2016 to December 2018 to determine the rate of kid mortality and associated risk factors of kid survival. The data were collected from the reproductive and mortality register book. A total of 300 kids were documented during the time period, which were analyzed to assess the importance of the existing cause of kid mortality and survival.

Agalactia was the primary health problem and cause of mortality in the study site. Survival rates were less for kids with birth weighs below 1.9 kg, for increasing size of the litter and for female compared with male kids.

Keywords: agalactia, age, birth weight, breed, litter size

Introduction

Small ruminants especially goats are among the livestock species that are densely populated in Ethiopia, estimated to be 21,884,222 (CSA 2009). The country holds 13.5% of the African goat population (FAO 1991). Ethiopian farmers prefer to rear goats for their low cost of production, prolificacy, and for their adaptive capacity to warm environment, dynamic feeding behavior and fast reproduction cycle. The degree to which goats survive to marketable age is one of the key indicators of the efficiency of goat production.

Even though Ethiopia is endowed with substantial potential for animal production (Solomon et al 2010), several reports have shown that there are increased domestic demands for animal products due to population growth. Despite the huge potential, there is a chronic shortage of the livestock product in most part of the country arising mainly from poor productivity of the local breeds, poor husbandry and herd health management and shortage of feed (Tesfaye et al 2008). Boer goat breeds are the most selected breed for meat purpose, as a result the government of Ethiopia imported Boer goat breeds to distribute them for farmers to upgrade the productivity of local breeds.

However, the country suffers different constraints among which disease stands in the front line (Firew 1999, Samson and Frehwot 2010). Directly or indirectly disease is one of the major barriers for the improvement of livestock production, reproduction and marketing. Diseases of various origins (bacterial, viral, parasitic, etc.) are among the numerous factors responsible for poor production and productivity (Firew 1999 and Feyesa et al 2010). Parasitic diseases play a detrimental role in hampering small ruminant production leading to serious economic loss (Teklye 1991).

The production of goats is affected by genetic and environmental factors. One of the most important production factors that adversely affect goat production is insufficient milk production by the does, identified as the major constraint directly associated with higher kid mortality and reduction of total productivity (Hunsain 1993). The annual economic loss due to disease, mortality, reduced reproductive and productive performance was estimated at 150 million USD (Berhanu 2002). In Ethiopia, 5-7 million sheep and goats die each year due to disease (Sileshi and Lidetu 2003).

Knowledge of the causes of mortality would be helpful in designing strategies that would minimize losses. In this regard, knowledge of temporal pattern of distribution of a disease in a population is important in suggesting the type of disease that is occurring and its possible causes (Radostits 2007). Understanding on the incidence, prevalence, distribution and determinants or risk factors of survival and mortality in an area is necessary for undertaking the efficient control program.

The aims of this study were to assess temporal causes of kid mortality and associated risk factors of kid survival and to give useful information on mortality pattern to be used to reduce the high rate of kid mortality as well as formulating policies for future management to prevent diseases.

Materials and methods

Description of study area

A retrospective study on kid mortality and associated risk factors of kid survival was conducted in Debre Birhan Agricultural Research Centre; Ataye Boer Nucleus Site, which is 5 km far from Ataye town, Eastern Amhara Regional state of Ethiopia. The site is located 10° 35’ N latitude, 39° 93’E longitude and 1491 m above sea level altitude. The area is characterized by unimodal rainfall pattern, receives mean annual rainfall of 969 mm with wet season: March, April, July, August, September and October; and dry season January, February, May, June, November and December. The average monthly temperature ranges from the 12.6°C to 30.1°C (Girma and Desta 2007).

Study animals and their management

The goat flocks were mixtures of different breed groups including pure Boer, 50% Boer (Boer x Central Highland Goat) and 75% Boer (pure Boer x 50% Boer). The total numbers of live delivered and dead kids were the subjects in the study site. Newly born kids were weighed a few minutes after birth and were weaned at three months of age. Flocks were reared with two categories of feeding management: intensive and semi-intensive. 100% Boer goats were managed under intensive management system and 50% Boer and 75% Boer were managed under semi-intensive system with grazing and supplement. The supplementation included ad libitum grass hay, chopped pasture (Napier grass, Desmodium species and Vetch) and concentrate supplement based on their body weight. All kids were managed under intensive management system until they were weaned from there dams.

The oats were vaccinated against sheep and goat pox, contagious caprine pleuro pneumonia/CCPP/, pestides petites ruminitis /PPR/ and ovine pasterollosis diseases. They were treated regularly for internal and external parasites. Regular vigilance was performed to ensure the feeding, herd health care, proper breeding and cleanliness of the farm. Generally, there were a regular follow ups of sick animals and the causes of illness and type of disease were registered. Morbidity and mortality were recorded daily on the basis of history, observed clinical signs, postmortem and some by laboratory examination. Suspected causes of mortality were clarified by taking the history, clinical signs before death when showed, postmortem examination (gross pathological lesions) and in some cases by laboratory tests.

Study design

A retrospective study of goat kid mortality was done using three years of reproduction and mortality data (January 2016 to December 2018) in Debre Birhan Agricultural Research Center; Ataye Boer Nucleus Site. The diagnosis was based on fecal, postmortem (gross pathological lesions) and clinical examination. According to the management system and the chance of exposure to infectious agents, animals were grouped based on birth weight (1.00 - 1.90 kg, 2.00 - 2.90 kg, 3.00 - 3.90 kg and >= 4.00 kg), litter size (single, twin and triple), breed (as 100% Boer, 75% Boer, and 50% Boer), parity (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5 ^th, 6^th and 7^th), age (0 - 15 days, 16 – 30 days, 31- 45 days, 46 - 60 days, 61-75 days and 76 - 90 days). Also, the time of exposure was grouped into seasons (summer from June to august, autumn from September to November, winter from December to February and spring from March to May).

The data were analyzed retrospectively and interpreted to determine the rate of kid mortality, seasonal mortality pattern and survival rate. The age, breed, sex, litter size, parity and season of the animals were collected from the mortality and reproduction data. There were 300 study animals registered in the reproduction and mortality recording book. Kid mortality was grouped into the following eight major cause: non- infectious cause of death; agalactia, weakness, mechanical injury and congenital defect and infectious cause of death; enteritis, pneumonia, cawdrosis and internal parasitism. Cases of rodent bite and hernia were grouped as mechanical injury. Also, schistosomus reflaxisus and deformed mandible were included in the congenital defect.

Data management and statistical analysis

The data generated were entered and managed in MS excel work sheets. The data were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software 20.0 version. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the mortality rate, seasonal mortality pattern and the effect of different factors on kid mortality and survival rate. The rate of mortality was expressed as percentage by dividing the total number of goats dead to a specific health problem to the total number of animals born. Chi-square (χ2) test was applied to test the existence of association and to see the level of significance between observed survival and associated risk factors, respectively.

Results

The primary cause of mortality was agalactia (Table 1).

As the age of kids increased, the number of kid died decreased (Table 2). The highest kid mortality was recorded in the early aga. Agalactia was the primary cause.

The general frequencies of mortality were randomly distributed throughout the year, but relative proportional mortality rate was encountered during 2017 (Table 3).

There were differences in kid survival between birth weights (Table 4) with highest rate mortality recorded for birth weight 1.00 - 1.90 kg and 2.00 - 2.90 kg with rate of 50.0% and 52.9% respectively. Kid mortality decreased as the birth weight increased. There were differences in kid survival between size of litters; mortality increased with number of kids per parturition. Similarly, there were differences in kid survival between sexes. However, there were no differences in kid survival between breed, among the parties and season of birth.

Discussion

In the present study, the mean annual goat kid mortality was 42.3% which was higher than the 28% in a South African milk goat herd (Donkin and Boyezoglu 2004), the 22.45% in Adami Tulu Jido Kombolcha District of Oromia, Ethiopia (Girma et al 2013) and 19.4% in Bangladesh (Kashem et al (2011).

The primary causes of mortality was agalactia, which disagreed with reports of pneumonia 42.2% by Rabbi et al (2014), neumonia 42.39% by Chowdhury et al (2002) Sriram et al (1982) and Koul et al (1988) observed that he main causes of kid mortality were pneumonia and enteritis. This cause difference in kid mortality could be explained by the difference in management practices, immunological status, breed involved and the environment.

Agalactia was the primary cause of kid mortality early in llife. This might be related to poor mothering ability, pendulous udders, over-crowding and lack of close attendance by the staff responsible. Pneumonia and cawdrosis more affected kids as their age increased. This might be due to loss of maternal antibodies as the life span of kids increases. Generally, age, nutrition, physiological state and presence or absence of under-current infections also influence the incidence rate and severity of infection in goats (Kusiluka and Kambarage 1996).

The general frequency of the mortality was randomly distributed throughout the years but relatively more proportional mortality ratewas encountered during 2017.

Overall statistics in this study showed that mortality rate was 42.3%. Birth weights had an influence on the survival rate. Kid mortality decreased as the birth weight of kids increased, which is in agreement with findings of Girma et al (2013), Ershaduzzaman et al (2007), Husain (1993), Vihan et al (1992), Malik et al (1990) and Gupta and Sengar (1985) Kid mortality decreased with the increase in birth weight. Birth weight is a critical factor in prenatal mortality. Heavier kids have enough energy to maintain their body heat and get up to be suckled quickly. Lightweight kids usually die of starvation or hypothermia (Fernandez 2014).

There were no differences in kid survival between breeds.This might be due to he similar management system of the kids. This findin coincides with the report of Donkin and Boyezoglu (2004); they said that breed of goat had no effect on mortality. However, this disagrees with the report of Kusiluka and Kambarage (1996) that breed influences the incidence rate and severity of infection in goats.

The lack of difference in kid survival due to dam parity coincide with with the report of Ershaduzzaman et al (2007) but, disagrees with the report of Chowdhury et al (2002) who found that kid mortality decreased linearly with increase in parity. Awemu et al (1999) reported linear increase in survival rate with parity and observed maximum survival at the highest parity (parity 6). Girma et al (2013) also found that the highest survival rate was observed in the 8^th parity. Kid survival decreased with increase in litter size, which coincides with findings of Girma et al (2013), Ershaduzzaman et al (2007), Husain et al (1995), Vihan et al (1992) and Malik et al (1990). This was probably because of the maternal effect since less less milk was available per kid. Small and weak kids could not resist the harsh environment. High birth weight is one of the keys to kid survival. Kids from twin and larger litters do not suckle as long as singleton kids. This means they probably get less colostrum than kids from single births because of competition for a limited supply ( Fernandez 2014).

There was no difference in kid survival between seasons of birth.. This result disagree with those oof Girma et al (2013), Kashem et al (2011), Ershaduzzaman et al (2007), Chowdhury et al (2002) and Majumder et al (1980). There were differences in kid survival between sexes; higher mortality was recorded for females which coincides with reports of Ershaduzzaman et al (2007). Similar mortality rates for male and female were observed for all periods. Malik et al (1990) observed the mortality rates for male and female kids were 44% and 43%, respectively. Honhold (2001) and Mazumdar et al (1980) found no significance differences between the sexes. Research results on the influence of sex of kid on survival are mixed. Some studies show males are more likely to die than female kids. Other studies show males survive better because of their higher birth weights.

Conclusions

• Agalactia was the primary health problem and cause of mortality in the study site.
  
  
• Survival rateswere less for birth weighs below 1.9 kg , for increasing size of the litter and for female compared with male kids.

Acknowledgment

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Debr Birhan Agricultural Centre for giving us all the necessary facilities for the completion of this work.

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Received 30 April 2020; Accepted 2 June 2020; Published 1 July 2020

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