Effects of Intramuscular Vitamin E Administration on Chemical Composition of Lactating West African Dwarf (Wad) Goats Milk.

Abstract Goats in Africa are constantly exposed to adverse weather conditions which leads to production deficiencies. Vitamin E ameliorates such effects as it aids better utilization of nutrients and increases quality of animal-based products, especially milk. This study investigated effect of vitamin E administration on some milk constituents of lactating West Africa Dwarf (WAD) goats. Twenty-four (24) lactating WAD does were randomly assigned to three treatment groups: T0 (control) received no vitamin E, while lactating does in T2 and T3 received 75 and 150 IU of vitamin E respectively. Milk samples were collected, frozen at -4°C and analyzed for some milk constituents. Lactating does administered 150 IU produced the highest (p<0.05) milk protein (3.66%), titratable acidity (0.20%), total solids (13%) and casein (3.52%), but higher mean value of calcium (257.63 mg/100g) was recorded compared to does injected 75 IU. Late stage of lactation produced the highest (p<0.05) milk protein (3.88%), lactose (4.62%), total solids (13.17%), solids-non-fat (9.41%) and casein (3.53%) while early stage of lactation had the highest (p<0.05) calcium (266.21 mg/100g), phosphorus (28.98 mg/100g), zinc (2.68 mg/100g) and copper (0.22 mg/100g). Milk protein, lactose (LAC), moisture content (MC), total solids (TS), solids-non-fat (SNF), casein and copper (Cu) were stable (p<0.05) at the end of twelve weeks of milk storage duration (MSD). The study concluded that vitamin E administration improved the quality of milk constituents of lactating WAD does.