ABSTRACT

This research work was conducted to examine the pre-weaning performance of pure and crossbred goat kids in the rainforest zone of South-East, Nigeria. A total of 37 progenies generated from crosses breeding of Red Sokoto (RS) X West African Dwarf (WAD) goats in a main and reciprocal crosses were used for the study. At birth, RSXRS (11 12.50g) RSXWAD (1050.oOg) WADXRS (I 100.Oog) and WADXWAD (I 100.00g) genotypes had no significant difference in body weight. However, at 20weeks the RSXRS and RSXWAD had significantly heavier weight (8412.50g and ,8250.50g) than WADXRS and WADXWAD (6468.75g and 6979.17g) respectively The correlation coefficient obtained showed that body length BLT (0.06* and 0.93**), heart girth HG (0.65* and 0.95**) and height-at-withers HW (0.60* and 0.94**) at (p<O.05 and p<O.Ol respectively) of RS X WAD and RS X RS genotypes showed strong positive association with body weight at 20 weeks of age. However the WADX WAD genotype did not exhibit significant association between body weight with the growth trait considered. The RS X WAD hybrid kids performed better than its reciprocal WADXRS counterparts This superior performance of the RSXWAD for most measured parameters presents the RSXWAD as a more promising and a suitable hybrid goat for meat production in rainforest zone of South-East Nigeria.