Social communication advances the onset of puberty and increase body weight in female goats reared as a group

Abstract

In small ruminant females, goats, and sheep, sensorial stimuli that emit (seeing, smelling, touching, hearing) have a marked influence on reproduction. The aim of this study was to determine if the females reared as a social group advance the onset of puberty and gained more body weight than females reared under social isolation. Females were isolated from males from weaning at 40 days of age and were split into two groups. In the first, females (n = 10) were placed together in a pen, while in the second (n = 10), each female was placed individually in a pen. The first ovulation, indicative of puberty’s onset, was denoted by the plasma progesterone (≥ 1 ng/mL) acquired from at least two consecutive blood samples collected weekly. The onset of puberty in females reared as a social group was at 342.2 ± 4.5 days of age, and in females reared in social isolation was at 360.8 ± 3.6 days. Body weight at the beginning of puberty in the social group was higher (28.7 ± 0.4 kg) than in those females reared under social isolation (24.5 ± 0.5 kg) (P < 0.5). In addition, at the end of the study, on day 379, the social group recorded a higher body weight (29.5 ± 1.8 kg) than those in social isolation (25.0 ± 0.5 kg) (P < 0.05). We conclude that female goats reared as a social group advanced the onset of puberty and gained more body weight compared to females reared under social isolation.