Reproductive Characteristics of Dazu Black Goats, a Newly Discovered Chinese Indigenous Breed Resource with High Litter Sizes

The reproductive characteristics of Dazu black goats (1056 kidding, 584 adult does and 224 adult bucks) have been researched in this study. The results showed that the age of puberty, sex maturity and breeding for male and female kids were 102.0 +/- 4.2 days vs. 117.0 +/- 8.7 days; 216.0 +/- 28.5 days vs. 195.0 +/- 22.4 days; 490.0 +/- 38.5 days vs. 355.0 +/- 27.5 days, respectively. Estrous cycle was 20.1 +/- 0.5 days. The duration of the natural estrous period of Dazu black goat (41.4 +/- 8.6 h) was longer than these reported goat breeds and was not significant difference among the different litter sizes does in the breed. The semen quality was high in different seasons. Dazu black goats might have shorter gestation period (147.9 +/- 1.7 days) and have longer kidding interval (237.8 +/- 4.6 days). The percentages of singletons, twins, triplets and quadruplets born were 1.98, 47.27, 40.02 and 10.29 %, respectively. The mean litter sizes (2.60 +/- 0.72) were the highest among the reported meat goat breeds in China. Dazu black goat reached the highest litter sizes (2.74 +/- 0.71) in the fourth kidding.