Effects of Dietary N-3 Fatty Acids on Growth Performance, Apparent Digestibility and Carcass Characteristics of Crossbred Boer Goat under Tropical Conditions

摘要

Recently, feeding animals with dietary essential fatty acids have become of interest in animal nutrition. This is mainly to enrich their content in animal products in order to improve consumer health. Most of these studies have been focused in sheep and cattle while goats received a little attention. This study was conducted to assess effects of feeding different levels of linseed as a source of n-3 fatty acid on goat's growth performance, apparent digestibility and carcass characteristics. Twenty-four 5-month old crossbred Boer bucks were divided into three groups (n = 8) and assigned into three treatment diets differed in level of Unseed for 110 days. The diets were L0, L10 or L20 contained 0% (control), 10 and 20% (w/w) linseed, respectively. Inthe last 14 days of the trial, four animals from each group were placed in metabolic crates for collection of feces. At the end of the trial all goats were slaughtered. The results showed that the final weight, total weight gain and apparent digestibility were not affected by the treatments (p>0.05). Goats fed L20 diet had lower (p<0.05) feed intake (669.30 g day~(-1)) compared to L0 (705.21 g day~(-1)) or L10 (698.51 g day~(-1)). The gain: Feed ratio was higher (p<0.05) in L20 compared to other treatments. The internal fat weight was heavier (p<0.05) in L20 (550.57 g) compared to L10 (373.00 g), while in L0 was (469.40 g) without significant difference from both. The percentage of lean was better (p<0.05) in L10 (67.82) compared to L0 (65.25) or L20 (64.78). It is concluded that linseed can be included to goat diets up to 20% (w/w), without adverse effects on growth and carcass quality of goat. Feeding goat 20% linseed can increase feed efficiency while 10% can improve goat carcass traits.