Factors affecting placental traits and relationships of placental traits with neonatal behaviour in goat

Abstract

The relationships between placental characteristics and litter weight, factors affecting these characteristics, and the relationship between these characteristics and neonatal behaviour of goat kids were investigated in this study. The study was carried out over three consecutive years and animal material consisted of total 152 Turkish Saanen goats and their 230 kids. The results of the study demonstrated that there were positive correlations between litter weight (LW), cotyledon number (CN), placental weight (PW) ( r = 0.64 and 0.76, P < 0.01), but there was negative correlation between LW and cotyledon density (CD) ( r = −0.42, P < 0.01). CD was negatively correlated with PW ( r = −0.61, P < 0.01). CN and PW were influenced by the parity of doe, birth type–sex combination, buck within years and year of the study. On the other hand, parity and birth type–sex combination had no effect on PE ( P > 0.05), but buck within year affected placental efficiency ( P < 0.01). CD was only influenced by the parity of doe ( P < 0.01). Duration of birth (D) was not significantly related with CD, but if CD declined, it prolonged ( r = −0.23, P > 0.05). There were strong relationships between CD and birth-to-standing (B-St), and CD and birth-to-suckling (B-Su) ( r = −0.42 and −0.51, P = 0.01 and P < 0.01).The results of the present study have shown similarities to the findings of the studies in sheep. Further studies are required to investigate the basis of the relationship between CD and neonatal behaviour.