Yes, goats. Japanese goats! [ Edit: Probably not Japanese but Malaysian, etc. ]
Nonetheless in my ongoing stream of varied posts, this does have its own interest.
Anim Sci J. 2015 Nov 11. doi: 10.1111/asj.12484. [Epub ahead of print]
Effects of dietary supplementation of selenium and iodine on growth performance, carcass characteristics and histology of thyroid gland in goats.
Aghwan ZA1,2, Sazili AQ1,3,4, Kadhim KK5, Alimon AR3, Goh YM6,4, Adeyemi KD3,7.
Author information
1Halal Products Research Institute, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
2Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq.
3Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
4Laboratory of Animal Production, Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
5Branch of Anatomy and Histology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq.
6Department of Veterinary Preclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
7Department of Animal Production, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
Abstract
This study assessed the effects of dietary selenium (Se), iodine (I) and a combination of both on growth performance, thyroid gland activity, carcass characteristics and the concentration of iodine and selenium in Longissimus lumborum (LL) muscle in goats. Twenty-four bucks were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments: control (CON), basal diet without supplementation, basal diet + 0.6 mg Se/kg dry matter (DM) (SS), 0.6 mg I/kg DM (IP), or combination of 0.6 mg/kg DM Se and 0.6 mg/kg DM I (SSIP) and fed for 100 days. Animals fed diet SSIP exhibited higher (P < 0.05) body weight and better feed conversion ratio (FCR) than those fed other diets. Dressing percentage of goats fed the supplemented diets was higher (P < 0.05) than that of the control. Carcasses from the IP group had higher (P < 0.05) total fat proportion than the SSIP group. The levels of both elements were significantly elevated (P < 0.05) in LL muscle in supplemented goats. Thyroid follicular epithelial cells of IP and SSIP animals were significantly higher than those of CON and SS groups. The study demonstrated that the combined Se and I dietary supplementation improves growth performance, carcass dressing percentage and increases the retention of Se and I in goat meat.
© 2015 Japanese Society of Animal Science.
KEYWORDS:
goat meat; growth; iodine; selenium; thyroid gland