Reproductive Features and Disease Profiles of Goats

Bangladesh has only one goat breed of its own, popularly known as Black Bengal goat (BBG), famous for its adaptability, fertility, fecundity, delicacy of meat and superior skin quality. Although the value of goats and their contribution to national economy and livestock sector is well established, very little has been provided for exploring their genetic potential terms of production and reproduction. Even in world literature, very few citations are available with respect to Black Bengal goats. Information on performance potential of BBG on terms of growth rate, mature weight, litter size, milk yield and mortality rate reported till now in Bangladesh is much lower than that reported from other countries. After having considered the limitation of information on potential performance and disease profiles in BBG, the present research work was undertaken with the objectives of evaluation of production performance of BBG as a genetic resource in terms of growth, production and reproduction traits under an organized farming system as well as to determine the disease profiles with emphasis on mastitis in BBG reared under farming and non-farming condition.