BST use in Angora Goats
By Dr Mackie Hobson BSc(Agric),BVSc

1. Nutrition

Bovine somatotropin (bST), also known as bovine growth hormone, is an animal drug used to increase milk production in dairy cows.

Bovine somatotropin also has been shown to positively affect growth, carcass composition, and wool fiber production. In the present study, data were collected to determine whether bST treatment of lactating Angora does would affect preferentially the partitioning of nutrients towards fiber or milk production either during the period of bST treatment or in the period after bST treatment.

The results of this experiment:

• Do not depict potential to enhance mohair production through slow release bovine somatotropin treatment of Angora does.
• Growth by suckling kids may be enhanced, although cost effectiveness of the treatment is unknown.

Reference:

The effect of bovine somatotropin (bST) on production of lactating Angora does with kids

1. J. Davis, T. Sahlu, R. Puchala, M. J. Herselman, J. M. Fernandez, J. P. McCann, and S. W. Coleman

Journal of Animal Science 77:17-24. 1999

Langston University