Fibre and protein digestion in goats
1997
Lindberg, J.E. | Gonda, H.L. (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala (Sweden). Dept. of Animal Nutrition and Management)
The aim with this review is to present recent data related to the digestion of fibre and protein in goats and discuss comparative data on the digestion of goats and sheep. Although, total tract digestion of organic matter appears to be slightly higher in goats than in sheep, there are no conclusive data showing a superior fibre digestive capacity in goats as compared with sheep. Also, goats and sheep show similar nitrogen digestibility and nitrogen utilisation given identical diets at similar levels of intake. There are, however, indications of a more efficient dietary nitrogen utilisation in goats fed low protein diets. Goats spend more time eating and less time ruminating than sheep but appears to have a greater efficiency in chewing during eating. No clear species differences in rumen fermentation parameters, rumen retention time and total tract retention time of digesta and liquids in goats and sheep were found. In general, feeding behaviour and diet selection appears to be better developed in goats than in sheep, giving goats a higher capacity to adapt to seasonal variations in forage availability under rangeland conditions than sheep.
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