Browsing by Author "Kyomo, Martin Luther"

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    Meat from goat in Tanzania
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 1977) Kyomo, Martin Luther
    The shortage of protein of high biological value in the tropics could be decreased by raising larger numbers of indigenous ruminant livestock, and of increasing off¬ take and weight per animal destined for slaughter. In Tanzania, where there are about five million goats and their meat is already very popular, improvement of goats through better breeding, feeding and disease control methods could lead to a several-fold increase in the present annual production of 1.3 million goat carcasses. The paucity of data on which to base goat improvement methods was the major reason for undertaking this study. A comparison was made in reproductive performance, growth rate and carcass yield between the Tanzania indigenous goats and the Tanzania x Boer and the Tanzania x Karmorai goats. The total numbers of animals involved in the study, which was conducted between 1972 and 1976, inclusive, were 7 sires, 177 dams and 559 progeny. The study confirmed earlier untested theories that the Tanzania goat, which belongs to the East African breed type of goat, produces kids throughout the year. There were, however, peak periods in which more darns kidded than in other periods .The total amount of rain falling during a given period was the only environ¬ mental factor affecting the time of conception of the dams (P < O.001). This relationship seemed to be an indirect one, in that more rain meant more forage growth and availability and therefore better body condition of the darns. Better fed dams ovulate, conceive when mated, and maintain pregnancy to term more readily than underfed dams. The twinning rates and mortality of kids have been reported in the thesis. The effects of year, sex, seasons and birth type, whether singles or twins, on weight at various ages have been reported. The slight superiority of castrates over the entire male kids in growth rate observed in this thesis calls for more studies to see if the hormonal patterns related to growth were different from those of animals of similar sexes in other domestic livestock. The heritability estimates for weight at birth , weaning, one year and 72 weeks of age were 0.7 ± 0.10, 0.14 ± 014, 0.07 ± 0.11 and 0.017 ± 0.16, respectively. of kids could, for practical purposes on the farms, be The weight predicted by the formula : Weight (in kg) = - 4.22 ± 0.15 .+ (0.00806 ± 0.00007 x Girth (in cm) x Length (in cm).(R2 = 88.2%). The cold dressed carcass percentages of the Boer and Kamorai crossbred and Tanzania purebred kids were 45.57, 45.34 and 45.34 per cent, respectively. The areas of the eye muscle (Longissimus dorsi) measured on the 10th and 11th ribs of the male and castrated kids ranged between 11.77 and 14.27 square centimeters. The castrated kids had more total lean, fat and bone than the entire male kids. The heritability estimates for cold dressing percentage, total lean, total fat and total bone within the carcass were 0.7, 0.3, 0.04 and 0.4, respectively. It is concluded that this study has contributed to the knowledge on meat goat production characteristics in the tropics and will form a basis on which to plan the breeding and management of commercial meat goats in Tanzania.