Influence of breed, sex, season, age, type of birth and birth weight on mortality rate in crossbred kids under stallfed conditions

The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of non-genetic factors on mortality in stall-fed Alpine x Beetal (AB) and Saanen x Beetal (SB) kids from birth to 6 months of age. The kid mortality rate was found to be 15.69% for AB and 14.79% for SB genetic groups. Mortality rate was 15.81% for female and 15.02% for male kids. The effect of genetic groups and sex was found non-significant. Mortality was highest in hot dry season (45.77%), followed by winter (38.96%) and hot humid (15.27%) seasons. The effect of season on mortality was significant (P<0.01). The mortality was highest between 31–90 days age group (38.31%), followed by birth to 30 days age group (34.74%) and 91–180 days age group (26.96%), though the differences were found to be non-significant. The highest kid mortality was 20.80% for single born kids while it was 13.65% for twins and 11.28% for triplets and above. Mortality rates for birth weight Group-1 (< 2.6 kg), Group-2 (2.6 to 3.1 kg), Group-3 (3.2 to 3.7 kg) and Group-4 (> 3.7 kg) were 18.20, 14.57, 14.24 and 17.71 percent, respectively. The effect of birth weight and type of birth was not significant.