The Effect of Oral Probiotics on Behavior, Rectal Temperature, Body Condition Score and Hair Coat Condition in Late Gestation Dairy Goats

Abstract

Providing goats with probiotics could improve the goats health. Moreover, it could reduce the use of antibiotics. This study investigated whether probiotics have a positive effect on the health of dairy goats in late gestation. A total of 40 healthy dairy goats in late gestation were randomly divided into two groups, they were fed the same feed and were kept together in one pen. The probiotics group received a treatment with the Probiotics Biokult Advanced® and Orthiflor Plus® for four days. The control group received water as a placebo. In both groups the rectal temperature decreased significantly after 14 days, this was correlated to a decrease in ambient temperature. However, between the two groups no significant difference in rectal temperature decrease was observed. Moreover, no significant difference in body condition score and hair coat condition were detected. Furthermore, the general impression of the goats remained unchanged. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that four days of probiotics has no measurable positive or negative effects on the health of late gestation dairy goats in the ten days after the treatment. More research with probiotics in dairy goats should be conducted in the future with a longer study period and a larger sample size. This way, it is possible to further investigate which bacteria have a positive effect on the dairy goat