REDUCING SYNCHRONIZING PROSTAGLANDIN F2Α DOSAGE IN DAIRY GOATS FOR ENHANCED GOAT ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION UPTAKE

Dairy goat farming is rising globally as an alternate climate smart livestock. This rise is attributed to its high drought and heat resilience, less methane emission and better disease resistance. According to KNBS (2019), the goat population in Kenya stands at 15 million with close to 400,000 being dairy goats mainly bred using rotation bucks thus predisposing them to reproductive challenges. This study was carried out to determine farmers attitudes and perception on artificial insemination (AI) in goats and to determine the optimal dose of prostaglandin (PGF2α) required for estrous synchronization in goats. A baseline survey was undertaken on 200 goat rearing households in Mukurwe-ini Sub County in Nyeri County using a structured questionnaire. This was followed by a controlled experiment at the Ol Magogo sheep and goat farm which involved 45 healthy cycling, non-pregnant dairy goats aged 1.5 to 3 years using a control randomized block. They were randomly allocated into three groups of 5 goats each, the control group received 500µg, group 2 received 250µg and group 3 received 125µg of Cloprostenol (estroPLAN) intramuscularly (IM) replicated three times. Double injection protocol of 11 days apart was used. The heat response, onset, intensity and duration were observed and recorded. Questionnaire data were analyzed using R software version 4.03 and comparisons done using Pearson chi-square test at 95% confidence interval. Experimental data were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using R software and means separated using least square differences (LSDs). The results revealed that a majority of farmers use natural mating (98%) and a significant (p-<0.05) number of farmers were willingness to pay for AI. 71.4% of farmers though willing to pay, perceived this technology to be expensive. Whereas the heat response for group 1 and 2 were similar, a majority of group 2 goats had milky vaginal mucus between 60 and 72 hours and highest pregnancy rates (84.6%). It is concluded that goat rearing Goat rearing in Nyeri was through small scale practice involving 2-5 goats and most farmers were not members of goat associations. Breeding was done through rotation bucks and this practice was leading to inbreeding and reproductive venereal diseases. Goat AI practice was significantly low and mostly practiced by younger generation. Lowered dosage of PGF2α by half (250µg) was effective and efficient in synchronizing goats. It is recommended that Farmers be encouraged to join the goat associations for better management of goat farming. It is suggested that farmers do away with the use of rotation bucks to decrease venereal diseases and in breeding in goat farming. The other suggestion is that synchronizing of goats be done using 1ml (250µg) instead of 2 ml of PGF2α. It is suggested that the results of this study be used to inform policy that allows lower synchronizing dose be applied for synchronizing goats across the country and also to be part of the protocol to be integrated within the goat AI Centre in Ndomba for enhanced delivery of goat AI services in Kenya and beyond.

Key words: Artificial inseminations, goats, prostaglandins, synchronization

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agriculture plays a significant role in sustaining the developing countries´ economy and attaining food security. Livestock sector in developing countries accounts for more than one third of Global Agricultural GDP (Alston and Pardey, 2014). This sector employs more than one billion people in the world of which 60% are from rural households (Ingabire et al., 2018). In Kenya, livestock contributes approximately 12% of the country’s GDP where goats form an essential component (Ndeke et al., 2015). The use of technologies in the livestock sector enhances productivity, reduces threats of diseases and ensures environmental sustainability in productive areas (Ingabire et al., 2018).

The world goat population was about 850 million in 2007 with 245 million of these found in Africa (Solaiman, 2010). Kenya has approximately 27.7 million in Kenya (KBNS 2009; out of which 400,000 are dairy goats (Kikwatha et al., 2020a). Goats too have become popular in recent years as a pathway out of poverty in Kenya due to its critical socio- economic role through meat, milk, and skin production (Ahuya et al., 2009). Goat breeds reared in Kenya are either local, exotic or their crosses with the majority being the indigenous found in the arid and semi- arid areas. The local breeds include the Small East Africa goat (SEAG) and Galla whereas the exotic breeds introduced to Kenya are Toggenburg, British and German Alpine, and Saanen (Kiema et al., 2020; Ndeke et al., 2015). The distribution of the local goat breeds in Kenya assumes some pattern with counties in the north having predominantly Galla goats while those in the rest of the country having the SEAGs. The exotic breeds are mainly concentrated around Mount Kenya region.

In recent years, goat farming has gained popularity as it’s seen to be a pathway of poverty eradication especially through the sale of milk and meat (Kiema et al., 2020). Despite this rise, goat farming system today is faced with many problems, key among them being poor breeding methods, poor nutrition and high disease and parasite burden. However, their rapid growth translates into quicker investment returns which makes this enterprise attractive amongst the youth and women.

This study aimed to determine the factors affecting the uptake of artificial insemination technology by testing the hypothesis that there are no factors affecting the uptake of artificial insemination in goat farming. The study also established through control experiments the optimal doses of PGF2α required for effectively synchronizing goats as a cost saving measure since this information is not readily available.

Goat milk has high nutritional value and medicinal advantages over the cow milk thus good for the children, the elderly, and those with terminal diseases like HIV. Producer prices of livestock products are expected to increase by 19% in 2027 from the year 2015 in response to the increasing world demand for animal products (Miller and Lu, 2019). This current situation of increased livestock pricing products, increased pressure on land resources, hunger, poverty and changing climatic conditions driven by international and domestic consumer demand present unpredicted development challenges in the developing countries. This has elicited the need for adoption of reproductive technologies like AI and synchronization that have been improved and are relatively cheaper to reduce the cost of production. However, in Kenya there is low uptake of AI in goats by dairy goat farmers which prompted the need to find out the factors affecting this uptake. The other theory is that the amount of pgf2a dose used for synchronizing goats is similar to what is used in cows thus being costly. With the reduction of the synchronization cost, then the adoption of goat AI technology stands a higher chance of uptake leading to improved dairy goat practice in the country. Improving dairy goat practice will enhance improved nutrition and food security thereby achieving the Kenya 2030 vision and the UN SDGs one, two, five and thirteen (Abubakar and Saeed, 2015).

To determine the factors affecting uptake of artificial insemination technology and establish the minimum dose of prostaglandin F 2α (PGF2α) required for synchronizing dairy goats.