Productive performance and changes in rumen characteristics of neonatal crossbred kids fed different raw milk and milk replacers

Three studies were conducted to determine the effects of feeding raw milk from goat, cattle and buffalo, commercial milk replacer and soybean milk on the productive performance of neonatal crossbred kids and their rumen characteristics and histology, and the effects of fortified soybean milk with whey protein isolate (WPI) on the productive performance and carcass and meat quality of crossbred kids.Findings of the study reveal that goat milk remains the best feed milk for goat kids from birth until weaning age. However, cow milk replacer and soybean milk fortified with WPI can be profitably used in kid rearing without any negative effects onproductive performance. This could be partly due to the rumen papillae and epithelia of neonatal kids which were still actively developing and therefore not yet affected by dietary treatments. Minor differences in final body weight among kids fed with milk replacer and other raw milk sources were observed. At pre- and post-weaning stages, kids fed with raw goat milk had the highest average feed intake, while those fed soybean milk had the lowest total and average feed intake compared to other treatments. These results suggest that dry matter intake is strongly influenced by the response of kids to the different sources of raw milk during the neonatal stage. The inclusion of high protein WPI improved the feed conversion ratio with minor digestive disorders of kids at pre-weaning stage. Macroscopic findings on rumen development at pre-weaning stage show a smooth surface from which the incipient papillae started to emerge. The ruminal surface was non-keratinized in appearance and of soft consistency. At post-weaning, the papillae rose above the ruminal surface, with considerable length for all treatments. Histological findings at pre-weaning and post-weaning stages of all treatments reveal no apparent lesion. In general, papillae and epithelia were not well developed at while at post-weaning stage, the rumen has thick base, with well-developed epithelium with densely distributed long papillae. Differences in carcass dressing percentage of kids at pre-weaning stage were probably due to the differences in body weight. Dressing percentage increases as the animal advances in age and maturity. No significant differences were observed on the fore and hind quarter carcass yield. It can be concluded that providing milk replacer during kid rearing increases the marketable milk yield and farm profitability without any negative effects on kids' growth, performance and carcass quality.