Twenty-four Murciano-Granadina goats (10 primiparous
and 14 multiparous) from the herd of the Universitat
Auto`noma de Barcelona (UAB) were used in a milking
trial early in the lactation. The experiment was
approved by the Ethics Committee on Animal and Human
Experimentation of the UAB (reference no.
CEEAH 04/481) and was performed from wk 3 to 11
of lactation.
After parturition, kids were separated from their
mothers within the first 8 h after birth, and then were
reared artificially with milk substitutes. After 21 ± 7
DIM, the goats (40.5 ± 5 kg of BW) were divided into
2 groups according to parity, BW, and daily milk yield,
recorded at wk 2 and 3. The study was conducted according
to a 2 × 2 crossover design, with 2 periods of
28 d each (14 d for adaptation and 14 d for sampling
and data recording). During the experiment, each group
of goats was kept in a separate pen with food and fresh
water available continually. In period 1, each group
was randomly assigned to 1 of the 2 dietary treatments:
control or SBO (6% of SBO as fed in the concentrate),
with the treatments switched in period 2. With the
SBO diet, the oil was incorporated into the concentrate
(Table 1) during manufacturing. The concentrates and
final diets were formulated to be isonitrogenous (Table
2), but with different levels of ether extract and total
FA (Table 3). Goats received a basal diet of dehydrated