Abstract
AbstractCoccidiosis is one of the major causes of kid mortality in tropical regions and causes significant loss to farmers by affecting growth and feed efficiency in the growing kid. The strategy to control the coccidiosis is mainly through drug usage and is not efficacious at present. Therefore, an alternative strategy is required to control the disease in goats. Increasing genetic resistance to coccidiosis may be an appropriate complementary control strategy. The purpose of this study was to analyse the genetic variation in severity of natural coccidiosis infections in kids in the semi-arid region. The observations were recorded in 227 kids of Barbari and Jamunapari goats. Barbari goats had higher mean faecal oocyst counts (FOC) than Jamunapari goats at 3 and 6 months of age. The heritability for FOC was 0.05 and 0.15 at 3 and 6 months of age, respectively. All phenotypic and environmental correlations between FOC and live weight traits were low and negative, indicating a tendency for more heavily infec...
Highlights
Coccidiosis an important enteric disease of goats and is observed in both intensive and extensive rearing conditions, in India and worldwide (Foreyt, 1990; Harper & Penzhorn, 1999; Rehman, Khan, Khan, & Ahmad, 2011)
Barbari goats had higher mean faecal oocyst counts (FOC) than Jamunapari goats at both ages (p < 0.05); higher maximum values were seen in Jamunapari goats at 3 months of age
Jamunapari goats were heavier than Barbari goats at all the ages (p < 0.05)
Summary
Coccidiosis an important enteric disease of goats and is observed in both intensive and extensive rearing conditions, in India and worldwide (Foreyt, 1990; Harper & Penzhorn, 1999; Rehman, Khan, Khan, & Ahmad, 2011). The major coccidia species that were found in the semi-arid region of India were Eimeria christenseni, Eimeria jochejevi, Eimeria ninakohlyakimovae and Eimeria arloingi (Sharma, Agrawal, Mandal, Nigam, & Bhushan, 2009). We hypothesize that the use of genetic resistance in the host goat has the potential to limit the effects of disease and can increase the profitability of farmer and simultaneously address issues of sustainable livestock production. Genetic variability in resistance to coccidiosis has been extensively studied in chickens (Bacciu et al, 2014; Chapman et al, 2013; Clark & Blake, 2012; Pinard-Van Der Laan, Monvoisin, Pery, Hamet, & Thomas, 1998; Zhu et al, 2000) and sheep (Beraldi et al, 2007; Reeg et al, 2005), but less in other domestic livestock species (e.g. rabbits; de Rochambeau et al, 2006).
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