PSX-10 Feeding behavior and physiologic parameters of goat kids fed by diets with increasing levels of babassu mesocarp flour

Abstract

Abstract Twenty eight crossbred Boer goat kids (21.6 ± 3 kg BW) were used in a randomized complete block design to evaluate the effects of increasing levels (0, 10, 20 and 30%, DM basis) of babassu mesocarp flour (BMF) on feeding behavior and physiologic parameters. Goat kids were individually confined and fed an isonitrogenous diet (12.6 ± 0.1 CP) containing 70% concentrate and 30% Tifton hay (DM basis) for 58 d, with 12 d for diet adaptation and 46 d for experimental period. Animals were monitored every 5 min during 24 h, on the 23th and 44th days of the experiment, according to the activities: eating, rumination, idle and other activities. The feed and rumination efficiencies, expressed as g DM/hour were obtained by dividing the average daily intake of DM by the total time spent eating and/or ruminating in 24 h, respectively. The animals’ physiological responses were evaluated at 06:00; 10:00; 14:00 and 18:00 h, over 10 consecutive experimental days, in which the following parameters were measured: rectal temperature (RT), body temperature (BT) and respiratory rate (RR). Orthogonal polynomials for diet responses were determined by linear and quadratic effects. Effects were declared significant at P ≤ 0.05. The levels of BMF did not affect (P ≥ 0.05) the time spent in eating, idle, rumination (averaging 217±27.4, 363±17.2 and 859±30.6 min/d, respectively), feed efficiency of DM (averaging 245±32.3 g DM/h), rumination efficiency of DM and NDF (averaging 138±28.1 and 155±26.6 g/h respectively) and RR (averaging 54±3.9 mov/min). However, the efficiency of feeding NDF, RT and BT increased linearly with BMF (P < 0.05). It is concluded that BMF can be added up to 30% in the diet of goat kids and despite the increase in some of physiological variables, there was no thermal stress, confirmed by the absence of differences in feeding behavior.