Abstract:

Kilis goat is an important local gene source in terms of fertility and milk yield and its original breeding area is Kilis, Adana, Gaziantep and Hatay provinces in Türkiye. This study was carried out to determine the reproductive and growth characteristics of primiparous Kilis goats and their adaptation to high-altitude mountainous areas (altitude 1550 m). A total of 120 Kilis goats from four different farms in Konya province were used in the study in 2019. Among the reproductive traits of Kilis goats, birth rate, litter size at birth, litter size at weaning, twinning rate and survival rate were found to be 92.5%, 1.25, 1.11, 25.1% and 88.2%, respectively, and the difference between the flocks were not statistically significant (P>0.05). Most of the births occurred between 06:00 and 09:00 during the day (P<0.05). The effects of flock, gender, type of birth and month of birth on the growth characteristics of goats were found to be significant (P<0.05). Birth weight, 1-month, 2-month, 3-month, 6-month and yearling live weights of Kilis kids were 2.91 kg, 6.6 kg, 10.9 kg, 14.2 kg, 19.3 kg and 22.8 kg, respectively. The effect of birth type and month of birth (P<0.01) on the live weight gain of Kilis goats from postpartum to the mating period was found to be significant and the average increase was 4.1 kg. In conclusion, although some of the reproductive and growth performances of the Kilis goat in mountainous areas are somewhat lower than in the original area, relatively good values were still observed, which shows that this breed is well adapted to mountainous areas. It should also be noted that the goats in the study were primiparous goats.

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