The meat goat industry is growing rapidly in the U.S., particularly on small farms. There are a diversity of forage types and qualities used in meat goat production systems. Seventy-two Boer goats were used to evaluate weight gain and carcass parameters when growing goats were finished on alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.; ALF), red clover ( Trfolium pratense L.; RCL), or orchardgrass (Dactylis glome...

A grazing trial in Central Otago compared the effectiveness of feral goats, Angora goats and Merino sheep for sweet brier control. The three ammal types were set stocked in replicate 0.5 ha paddocks at 10 Angoras, 14 ferals and 12 Merinos per ha. Goats were also rotationally grazed on a 50 ha block at approximately 10 goats per ha. Goat grazing reduced living brie, in the trial paddocks to negl...

A survey (n=276) was carried out to gather information on goat farming systems in three districts in the Southern province of Sri Lanka. The objective was to identify the prospects and constrains to improve the economic productivity of the herds. Goats were ranked highest in population and second in terms of importance to the house hold. Buddhists were dominated in goat rearing while selling of...

Although host-encoded prion protein (PrP(C)) expression in ovine PBMCs and prion infectivity in scrapie-infected sheep blood have been demonstrated, such studies have not been reported in goats. Therefore, this study characterized cell-surface expression of PrP(C) on PBMC subsets derived from normal goats and sheep, by flow cytometry, and determined prion infectivity in blood from a scrapie-inf...

This study investigated the geographic and pairwise distances of nine Chinese local Cashmere goat populations through the analysis of 20 microsatellite DNA markers. Fluorescence PCR was used to identify the markers, which were selected based on their significance as identified by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Society for Animal Genetics ...

The developmental competence of oocytes during in vitro maturation (IVM) is compromised due to asynchronous nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation. To improve IVM efficiency, a pre-maturation culture or two-step maturation strategy has been established, involving meiosis arrest induced by pharmacological agents to provide oocytes with sufficient time to synchronize the maturation of the nucleus and...

With Regulation EC 853/04, the European Parliament and the Council laid down general rules for food business operators regarding the hygiene of foodstuffs. In particular, the regulation established ≤1.500.000 cfu/mL as the maximum-tolerated value for total bacterial count in raw goat milk. Moreover, in order to enhance the hygiene of dairy farms, the Sardinia Region has funded the F measure pro...

Small ruminant lentiviruses isolated from peripheral blood leukocytes and target organs can be propagated in vitro in fibroblasts derived from goat synovial membrane cells. These cells are obtained from tissues collected from embryos or fetuses and are necessary for the establishment of the fibroblast primary culture. A new alternative type of host cells, derived from goat umbilical cord, was i...