Study of Carcass Characteristics of Goats Fed Rice Straw Supplemented with Moringa ( Moringa oleifera Lam. ) Foliage

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of different dietary levels of Moringa foliage on the growth performance, and carcass quality of Black Bengal goats. Thirty buckling of 6 to 8 months of age with an average initial live weight (LW) of 8.07 (±0.87) kg were allocated into five different dietary groups having six in each group for 105 days. Keeping molasses treated rice straw ad libitum as sole diet, 70% of dietary dry matter (DM) requirement was supplied with a conventional concentrate which was replaced with Moringa foliage in treatment diets at the rate of 25, 50, 75 and 100%, respectively. Consequently, Moringa foliage represented 17.8, 35.6, 52.9 and 67.2% of total dietary DM intake or 0.85, 1.7, 2.5 and 3.4% of LW of goats in treatment diets which did not affect the daily gain, DM intake and digestibility (P>0.05) significantly. The dietary DM intake and LW gain ranged from 4.6 to 4.8% of average LW and 67.3 to 79.3 g/d. The slaughter weight and dressing percentage, ranging from 15.0 to 15.6 kg and 51.9 to 52.5, did not vary significantly (P>0.05). The lean to fat ratio in carcass was 15.0 and 11.8 when diet contained 52.9 and 67.2% Moringa foliage, respectively which were significantly (P<0.05) higher than other diets. It was concluded that Moringa foliage may be included to the diet of goat up to 67.2% or 3.4% of LW which will produce more lean than fat without affecting dietary intake and daily gain.