the effect of melatonin and bromocryptine administration on body weight and shedding fibre of raeini goats

the effect of melatonin and bromocryptine on body weight, fibre shedding and cashmere traits was investigated by using 24 raeini female goats (2-3 years old) in four experimental groups: control (c); melatonin (mi) implant (18 mg at first and repeated after 40 days), bromocryptine (b) injection, (0.5 mg/kg bw per three days) melatonin and bromocryptine implant and injection (mib). all goats were maintained under natural photoperiodic conditioned of short day photoperiod (8 h light and 18 h dark), for two months. fibre was harvested by using wooden combs and each goat was combed four times at two week intervals, from 23th february to 8th march. combed fibers were 23.3, 15.7, 17.0 and 21.3 percent for mi, b and mib treated and c groups. cashmere fiber diameter (cfd) for mi group (21.4 um) was higher than the other c, b and mib groups 20.2, 19.9 and 19.8 um (p