WELFARE ASSESSMENT OF BLACK BENGAL GOAT IN SMALL SCALE FARMING SYSTEM

Abstract

Bangladesh Government has given special emphasis and adopted a national program on Black Bengal goats for poor farmers to reduce poverty by targeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through goat rearing, it can possible to improve the livelihood of the poor people and the country can achieve sustainable development goals. Welfare is an important aspect that affects the health and productivity of goats. Consistent with the rising quality of life and awareness among the Bangladeshi population, interest in goat welfare is just emerging. However, scientific studies on the welfare of Black Bengal goats are scarce in Bangladesh. Therefore, a study was conducted on small-scale Black Bengal goat farms for assessing the welfare of Black Bengal goat goats. A total of 539 no of goats were studied within 200 goat farms in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar districts. A structured questionnaire was deployed to interview and record the socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, and opinions of farmers regarding small-scale goat farming. Among 200 farmers, 13% were male and the female farmer was 87%. Farmer’s age was within thirty years in 34% of farms, and above thirty in 66% of farms. In terms of perception, 88.5% of the farmers agreed that the demand for goats is high, 77% of farmers said goat farming was easy and 76.5% of farmers said huge support was provided from the family members for goat farming. Most of the farmers (90%) reared their goats in a semi-intensive system. Most of the goat houses were built in the perch method. As, neither sufficient grazing land nor spare land is available for growing fodder, the main feed items of goats were roadside grass, tree leaves, and kitchen wastes, and wheat bran was the main concentrated feed source. Most of the goats died of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) (20.8%) followed by diarrhea (16.6%) and respiratory problem (11.8%). Quack (64.5%), and pharmacy owners (17%) mostly treated diseased animals. 15% of farmers could access support from veterinary hospitals. In terms of health management, 66.5% of farmers do regular deworming and 60% of the farmers vaccinated their goats against major diseases like PPR. Other farmers did not take any curative or preventive measures. It was found that trained farmers had a significantly higher tendency to vaccinate and regularly deworm the goats than the non-trained (p ≤ 0.05). The farmers of Cox’s Bazar had a significantly higher tendency to have the training and thus better vaccination and regular deworming operation than the farmers of Chattogram (p≤0.05). During xii castration, animal welfare was badly violated. Most of the farmers did not follow proper procedures. Castration was mostly performed by family members (58.6%), followed by quack (22.9%), and neighbors (8%). Only 5.7% of male animals were castrated in veterinary hospitals. In addition, during castration any person except in veterinary hospitals did not give local anesthesia. In individual animal observation (N=539), hair coat was rough in 12%, mucus membrane was pale in about 15%, and udder abnormalities were found in 8.2% of goats. The feces condition of the goats was found to be significantly loose in the goats who were provided pond water (p≤0.05). Grunting sound was auscultated and was significantly higher in goats reared in a house with perch less than three feet (p≤0.05). Hoof overgrowth was seen to be higher in male goats than in female goats (p≤0.05). About 23% of goats were found to be cold-stressed during this study. In terms of goat behavior and interaction, 90.5% of goats showed friendly behavior with other goats, and 95.4% and 69.4% of goats showed a positive approach to the owners and observers, respectively. In all cases, female goats showed a more positive approach than the male (p≤0.05). In terms of malicious behavior, goats were the victim of malicious behavior by a family member, neighbors, and other people in 3%, 8%, and 6% of farms, respectively (N=200). This study showed that there was a lack of knowledge and training in goat farming among the farmers and hence, the goats are facing various health and management issues, which compromised their welfare of goats. Hope that the findings of this study will assist farmers and different organizations to take proper measures to improve the welfare of the Black Bengal goat, especially in the small scale farming system. Further studies can be taken in hand to investigate more and analyze the possible effect on welfare by intervention in management.