An Important Genetic Material for the Turkish Goat Production: The Maltese Goat

Abstract

As is clearly understood from its name, the origin of Maltese goats come from Malta Island. Different information exist about past of the Maltese goats. Numbers of the goats that had been brought to our country long time ago are in the critical threshold. In this study, some of the morphologic and other characteristics of the genotype of Maltese goats which have been husbandred in the experimental farm of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University has been meticulously investigated. While almost all the colors are observed in Maltese goats, black mottled and red mottled are the dominant ones. The goats with long, broad and baggy ears from the middle, are mostly hornless. In some individual of the genotype which have weak breast connection to the body, excessive baggy breast have been observed. Just as Maltese goats share similarity with goat of Damascus and Kilis in terms of body size, they look like goats of Kilis, Damascus, Hair, Norduz and Honamlı in terms of live weights. Maltese goats are quite promising with regard to kid production because of high level of litter size (2.4 kid/goat), growing ability of kids (123-209 g/day) and distinction of health features. Besides efficient milk yield (108-539 kg/lactation) they have considerably good level of milk protein and milk fat. As conclusion, the Maltese goat breed is a good alternative for semi-extensive production conditions.