Muthanna Fathi Abdullah ^(1)* and Safwan Luqman Shihab ⁽¹⁾

(1). Department of Animal Production, College of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Muthanna Fathi Abdullah, Email: muthanna.f.a@uomosul.edu.iq).

 Received:  14/11/2022          Accepted:5/02/2023

Abstract: 

This study was conducted on some breeds of local goats bred in Iraq in order to assess the productivity of milk and its components (fat, protein, lactose and non-fat solids) and some growth characteristics represented by birth and weaning weight. It was noted that there are many breeds raised in Iraq, in addition to the local Iraqi black goats and the Marez, such as the Damascene, Cypriot, and Shami goats, the cross goats (Cypriot x local) and many other species, which are characterized by their high production of milk. The results of the study were also showed that there is a large discrepancy in these traits between studies, which may be due to the influence of genetic structures and environmental factors, especially nutrition, management style, animal age, season and year. This variation can be invested in the processes of genetic improvement of local breeds through selection or cross-breeding with foreign breeds and the dissemination of distinguished genetic structures among herds, as well as providing appropriate environmental conditions for breeding, which in turn will lead to improving the productivity of local goats of meat, milk and its products, which will contribute to increasing the level of production.

Key words: goat milk, components milk, growth goat kids.

Full paper in English: pdf