Effect of diet supplemented with ascorbic acid on : 1. growth performance and carcass traits of Meriz goat

Abstract EN

The study was conducted at the Animal Farm, Department of Animal Production, College of Agriculture, University of Duhok during the period from 14th June to 14th September 2009, where a total of twenty weaned (3-4 month old) male Meriz kids with an average live body weight of 13.48 ± 0.62 kg were divided randomly into 4 equal treatment groups and received 0,750, 1000 and 1250 mg/kg diet of vitamin C for duration of 90 days.

Results revealed that the overall mean of daily weight gain was 0.071 ± 0.007 kg.

Meriz kids received 750 mg/kg of vitamin C in diet had numerically higher daily gain and feed efficiency and lower water consumption compared to other groups.

Although results indicated that all carcass characteristics were not affected significantly by treatment, however a slight improvement was observed in final weight, hot carcass weight and fat thickness for kids fed 750 mg/kg diet vitamin C.