Puberty of crossbred male goat kids
This study aimed to determine the characteristics of puberty of crossbred goat male kids (Nubian x Saanen) The following puberty characteristics: weaning weight, growth rate, age at complete separation of prepuce from the penis, scrotal circumference at puberty, weight and age at puberty, volume of the first ejaculate, individual and mass motility percent of semen, abnormal morphology spermatozoa and the concentration of spermatozoa, were evaluated. Furthermore, the correlation between body weight at birth and body weight at puberty, ejaculation volume and scrotal circumference and the age of puberty and scrotal circumference were also studied. Eight single born male kids (Saanen x Nubian) were used in this experiment. Their mean weight at birth was 3.80 0.14 kg. The puberty characteristics were as follow: the average of weaning weight was 14.4 0.73 kg, growth rate 82.9 0.83 gm/day, age at complete separation of prepuce from the penis 16.3 0.33 week, puberty age 30 0.30 week with a mean body weight of 22.38 0.94 kg and an average scrotal circumference of 23.4 0.83 cm. The ejaculate volume, mass motility, individual motility percentage, the percent of live sperms, sperm cell concentration and the percentage of sperms with abnormal morphology were 0.68 0.05 ml, 3.60, 76.30 3.41% 87.30 1.63% 2.8 x 10 and 5.7 0.71% respectively. The correlation between the weight at birth and the weight at puberty was weak (R=0.076) but the correlation between scrotal circumference and the ejaculate volume was significant (R=0.36) No correlation between the age at puberty and the scrotal circumference (R=0.009) was found. Considering all the reported results of pubertal characteristics of goat male kids, it is concluded that the crossbred goat male kids attain puberty earlier and their growth rate is higher. Furthermore, the volume of their first ejaculated semen is directly correlated to scrotal circumference. [Nasir Salim Ali Elhammali; Abdulrahman Mohamed Alqurashi, Mohamed Tajedin Ibrahim, Adil Salim Elsheikh. Puberty of crossbred male goat kids. J Am Sci 2013;9(4):95 99] (ISSN: 1545 1003) http:/www.jofamericanscience.org. 13 Key word: Crossbred, Nubian, goats, male kids, puberty.