Effect of disinfected floor on growth performance of Assam hill goat

Introduction

The livestock contributes about 40 and 20 percent of total agricultural output in developed and developing countries, respectively and supplies 34 percent global food protein, supporting the livelihood of 1.3 billion people worldwide (FAO, 2018) [9] . The goat is a promising livestock to maintain livelihood and uplifting the socio-economic status of poor people of developing countries. It is also regarded as "Poor man's cow". India has the largest goat population in the world, with 148.88 million, according to the 20th livestock census. Central Institute for Research on Goats (CIRG) projected goats as 'Future animal' for rural and urban prosperity. Besides meat and milk, the goat provides other products like skin, fiber and manure. Goat consumes less feed (about 1/5th of cattle) and needs minimum space (1/6 th of cattle) for housing. Goats have exceptional tolerance to heat stress and it can control weeds to grow on poor quality feed (Norman,1991) [12] . The people of Assam are mostly non-vegetarian and as a result, the demand for meat and meat products in the state is considerably high. The goat population in Assam is 4.32 million (20 th livestock census) showing a decline of about 30 percent than the previous census. Farmers generally prefer the intensive system of farming so that balanced feed can be provided to the animals for better growth. But an unhygienic intensive system of housing may lead to infectious diseases. Prevention and control of infectious disease in animals mainly rely on the maintenance of a healthy environment through hygiene, which includes effective cleaning and disinfection. Lamani et al. (2020) [11] reported that parasitic diseases in goats can spread through contaminated pasture, soil, feed, and water, with higher exposure occurring under certain rearing systems due to accumulation and transmission of infective parasite stages. Parasitic load in Mandya sheep varied with the rearing system, mainly due to exposure to contaminated pasture, soil, feed and water; continuous grazing and poor sanitation increased contact with infective parasite stages and thereby enhanced the risk of parasitic infection (Sudharshan et al., 2016) [16] . The main aim of disinfection is to interrupt the route of transmission of germs between the source and healthy subjects and the selection of a disinfectant is mainly based on its cost, availability and efficiency.

Materials and Methods

The current study was conducted at the Goat Research Station, Assam Agricultural University, Burnihat, Assam, over a three-month period (February to April, 2022). At three months of age, eighteen healthy Assam Hill Goats (AHG) of comparable size-nine male and nine femalewere selected. The male and female kids were randomized separately and put in three groups viz. T 1 -kids reared on untreated floor, T 2 -the floor was sprayed fig. 1 (a) with 0.5% sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) which was prepared by mixing 100 ml of 5% commercially available hypochlorite solution in 900 ml of water and T 3 -floor dusted fig. 1 (b) with calcium oxide (CaO) i.e. quicklime uniformly. The kids were housed in the shed having elevated (4ft.) slatted www.extensionjournal.com floor and half wall (3 ft.) for open natural ventilation facility during the entire experimental period. Each individual kids were separated within the pens. The kids were vaccinated as per the farm schedule and deworming was done before the commencement of the experiment. The floor of the shed was cleaned thoroughly every day in all the groups. Disinfection of floor with above mentioned disinfectants was done in T 2 and T 3 groups at weekly interval during entire period of experiment. The kids under trial were offered concentrate ration (CP-19.90% & TDN-74.65%) @ 2 percent of body weight and farm-grown roughage viz. Para grass (Bracharia mutica), Guinea grass (Megathyrsus maximus), Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) mixed in equal portion to offer ad-libitum twice daily. The feed residues if any were collected in the next morning before feeding and weighed to know the actual consumption. However, the daily feed offered was adjusted so as to minimize wastage on account of residual leftovers. The records of voluntary feed intake and its leftover or residue were recorded daily to estimate dry matter intake (DMI). Wholesome fresh drinking water was made available on regular basis. Every two weeks, the kid's body weight was measured using a spring balance. The following formula was used to determine the body weight gain:

(Final body weight -Initial body weight) Average daily increase in body weight = No. of days Dry matter intake (DMI), which was used to measure feed consumption, was divided by body weight growth to determine the daily DMI. The following formula was then used to get the feed conversion ratio (FCR) (Sapra and Shingari, 1991) [14] :

Statistical analysis

The experimental data was subjected to one-way ANOVA as per the standard method Snedecor and Cochran 1994) [15] with the help of IBM SPSS 20.0 version.

Results

Assam Hill Goats' average body weight at various ages has been provided in the [Table 1]. At six months of age, kids categorised in the T 1 , T 2 , and T 3 groups weighed an average of 10.45 ± 0.17 kg, 11.93 ± 0.23 kg, and 11.38 ± 0.22 kg, respectively. The groups' body weights in the fifth and sixth months varied significantly (P < 0.05). Between the ages of five and six months, the T 2 group's body weight gain was noticeably greater. [Table 2]. The FCR was found to be significantly lower in the T 2 group compared to the T 1 and T 3 groups [Table 4], and the average daily dry matter intake (DMI) was similarly significantly greater in the T 2 group [Table 3]. Throughout the course of three to six months, the incidence of diarrhoea was five, two, and four in the T 1 , T 2 , and T 3 groups, respectively. Diarrhoea did not occur at all in the T 2 group starting in the third two weeks of the trial also negligible quantity of parasite present in fecal fig. 2.

The parasitic ova were found to be highest in T 1 group (71.8%), intermediate in T 3 (58%) and lowest in T 2 (46.8%). There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) between means with various superscripts within a row. The daily dry matter consumption (kg) is shown by the figures in following. There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) between means with various superscripts within a row.

Discussion

Body weight

At six months of age, the goats in the T 1 , T 2 , and T 3 groups weighed an average of 10.45 ± 0.17 kg, 11.93 ± 0.23 kg, and 11.38 ± 0.22 kg, respectively (Table 1). The body weight at 4 th , 5 th and 6 th fortnight differed significantly (P < 0.05) due to use of disinfectant. The body weight in T 2 group was significantly higher than the T 1 group. In AHG under field conditions, the average body weight at 6 months was greater than 8.03 kg (Das et al., 2022) [6] and 8.48 kg (Doley et al., 2023) [8] , whereas in AHG under intensive system of care, it was nearly 10.360.26 kg (Hoque et al., 2021) [10] . The current study's higher body weight compared to earlier workers may be the result of better management. However, the average body weight of Mehsana children was greater at around six months (13.56 to 13.87 kg) (Patel et al., 2020) [13] , which may have been caused by the breed's genetic makeup. Under intensive and semi-intensive systems, the average body weight of Salem goats was 13.51±0.46 kg and 13.53±0.44 kg, respectively (Chinnamani et al., 2018) [13] .

In the T 1 , T 2 , and T 3 groups, the average fortnightly body weight gain at the sixth fortnight, approximately 5.5 to 6 months of age, was 1.14 ± 0.11, 1.51 ± 0.10, and 1.37 ± 0.10 kg, respectively (Table 2). As each of the three groups grew older, their body weight growth rose. In Barbari goats (Antil et al., 2019) [2] , the average daily weight gain was between 73.10 and 76.13 g, whereas in Mehsana goats (Patel et al., 2020) [13] , it was between 34.08±2.24 and 39.23±4.10 g.

Compared to the T 1 group, the T 2 group's average body weight gain was considerably (P < 0.05) greater. The treatment groups' improved cleanliness and hygiene may be the cause of the notable body weight difference. As a floor disinfectant, sodium hypochlorite was reasonably effective at lowering the microbial load (Divyalaxmi et al., 2020) [7] .

Dry matter intake (DMI)

In terms of dry matter, children in T 1 groups consumed an average of 4.05 ± 0.11 kg (0.270±0.0072 kg/day) of feed each fortnight in the first fortnight, which progressively climbed to 6.59 ± 0.10 kg (0.439±0.0007 kg/day) in the sixth fortnight (Table 3). According to Das et al. (2022) [6] , the corresponding values were 4.48 ± 0.120 (0.299±0.0080 kg) and 7.51 ± 0.174 kg (0.501±0.0110 kg) for T 2 and 4.37 ± 0.117 (0.291±0.0080 kg) and 7.34 ± 0.163 kg (0.489±0.0107 kg) for T 3 . found that crossbred Beetal x Assam Local goats had an average daily DMI of 0.40±0.02 kg between 4 and 7.0 months. Mehsana goats on earthen (kuccha) floors had an average daily DMI of 325.40±9.3 g14.

In the current investigation, DMI increased as age increased. The fourth, fifth, and sixth fortnights showed a notable variation in DMI. Compared to the control group T 1 , the DMI in the T 2 group differed considerably (P < 0.05). But there was not a significant distinction between the T 3 group and the control. The children in the T 2 group may have better health and appetite due to the hygienic conditions created by applying sodium hypochlorite on the floor. When compared to concrete and earthen (kuccha) flooring, www.extensionjournal.com female goats (Beetal x Alpine) housed on dry, clean slatted floors had a higher daily DMI (0.452 kg feed + 0.302 kg concentrate) (Bhakat and Nagpaul, 2005) [3] . In the current study, the T 2 group had a significantly (P < 0.05) higher average daily DMI (0.501±0.0110). It can be deduced that sanitary flooring often have a reduced microbial load, which raises DMI.

Feed conversion ratio (FCR)

During the first two weeks, the average FCR of the healthy kids in the T 1 , T 2 , and T 3 groups was 7.80 ± 0.18, 7.38 ± 0.17, and 7.65 ± 0.18, respectively. In the sixth fortnight, the T 1 , T 2 , and T 3 groups' results were 5.80 ± 0.12, 4.88 ± 0.10, and 5.36 ± 0.11, respectively. As the age of the three groups increased, the FCR improved. The T 2 group's mean value was found to be lower than that of the T 1 and T 3 groups, suggesting that using a floor treated with sodium hypochlorite produced superior performance than the other groups. There was a highly significant difference (P < 0.01) in the FCR between the three groups during the fourth fortnight. The FCR of the T 2 group was considerably higher than that of the T 1 and T 3 groups, according to the critical difference test. In terms of numbers, the T 3 group's FCR in the fourth fortnight was superior to that of the T 1 group. Over the fifth and sixth cycles, there was a significant (P < 0.01) difference in the FCR across the groups. Compared to the current study, Beetal crossbred goats showed higher FCR (8.00±1.64) at 4.0-4.5 months of age and lower FCR (5.48±1.06) during 6.5-7.0 months of age (Das et al., 2022) [6] . Higher FCR (9.95±0.70) was also observed in Mehsana goats from 3 to 6 months of age (Patel et al., 2020) [13] . The incorporation of sodium hypochlorite to maintain better cleanliness and hygiene in the pen may have contributed to the T 2 group's decreased FCR in the current study and improved growth performance.

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