Pain Caused by Ear Tagging in Kids of Native Black Goats

There is no study about changes in behaviour and peripheral temperature of kid goats undergoing ear tagging procedure. This study was designed to elucidate that pain caused by ear tagging affects peripheral temperatures and behavioural observations in Karadi kid goats. Nineteen native black goat kids, aged 10 – 14 days, were used in this study. Eye and nasal temperatures were recorded before the ear tagging process, and after ear tagging 5 periods in 30 minutes. Besides, the researchers observed each kid's behaviour for 30 minutes before ear tagging and 30 minutes after it, using focal sampling method and the data recorded with instantaneous time sampling to measure the duration and frequency of each behaviour of the kids. Results revealed that peripheral temperatures were significantly decreased for both eye (P≤0.01) and ear (P≤0.01) after ear tagging. The temperatures of both eye and ear decreased after tagging significantly (P≤0.01) for 30 minutes. The proportion of time kid goats spent normal standing and suckling the dam’s teat decreased whereas the proportion of time spent head-shaking increased after tagging. Significant differences were found between abnormal standing (P≤0.01) and vocalization (P≤0.01). It is concluded that ear tagging causes a considerable pain in kid goats and using surface temperatures and behaviour are useful indicators to approve it.

Estimation of Effective Population Size of Korean Native Black Goat Using Genomic Information

The Korean native black goat (Capra hircus coreanae) is the only goat species to be officially registered in Korea under the Food and Agriculture Organization; however, no systematic research on their genetic diversity has been conducted. Decreased genetic diversity in Korean native black goat leads to an increase in the level of inbreeding across generations. In this study, the genetic parameters and effective population size of three strains of Korean native black goat—82 Dangjin, 87 Jangsu, and 118 Tongyeong individuals—were estimated using their genomic information. The average linkage disequilibrium (r2) between single nucleotide polymorphism markers in the genome was 0.16, 0.14, and 0.13 for the Dangjin, Jangsu, and Tongyeong strains, respectively. The largest linkage disequilibrium was observed in the 14th and 26th chromosomes (r2 = 0.18) of Dangjin individuals. Furthermore, an increase in physical distance between markers decreased the linkage disequilibrium. The effective population size of the three Korean native black goat strains showed a decreasing trend proportional to the decrease in generation. The effective population size was 47, 59 and 56 individuals for the Dangjin, Jangsu and Tongyeong strains, respectively, 13 generations ago. These values could be due to the high level of inbreeding for generating populations to preserve the Korean native black goat genetic resource. © 2021 Friends Science Publishers

Pain Caused by Ear Tagging in Kids of Native Black Goats

Purpose: The normal behavior of goat kids is influenced by painful husbandry procedures such as ear tagging, with kids reducing peripheral temperature and increase restlessness. The present study was designed to elucidate that pain caused by ear tagging affects peripheral temperatures and behavioral observations in Karadi kid goats. Study Design: Experimental Study Design. Subjects and Methods: Nineteen native black goat kids, aged 10-14 days, were used in this study as a sample. Eye and nasal temperatures were recorded before ear tagging process (control) and after ear tagging 5 times in 30 minutes. In addition, the behavior of each kid was observed for 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after ear tagging using focal sampling recorded with instantaneous time sampling to measure the duration and frequency of each behavior of the kids. Results: It was revealed that peripheral temperatures were significantly decreased for both eye (P<0.01) and ear (P<0.01) after ear tagging. The temperatures of both eye and ear increased directly after tagging and then decreased significantly (P<0.01) for 30 minutes. The proportion of time kid goats spent normal standing and suckling the dam’s teat decreased whereas the proportion of time spent head-shaking increased after tagging. In addition, abnormal standing was seen after ear tagging which was absent before the process of tagging. Significant differences were found between abnormal standing (P<0.01) and vocalization (P<0.01). While the differences between suckling, normal standing and head shaking were not significant. Conclusions: It is concluded that ear tagging causes considerable pain in kid goats.