Abstract :
The aim of study was to investigate if different intake levels of concentrate (supplementation
levels) would have an influence on chemical composition, biometric aspects and bone
mineral density (BMD) of femurs from Moxoto growing goats in the Brazilian semiarid
region. Thirty-two castrated kids (15.69±0.78 kg initial BW) were used allocated randomly
to one of the four levels of supplementation (SL) (treatments groups: 0; 5; 10 and 15 g/kg
BW). When the animals of treatment group 15 g/kg BW reached 25 kg BW, the animals
in the others treatments groups were also slaughtered. The increase SL resulted in linear
increase (P < 0.001) in the performance of animals as well as in fresh and dry weight of the
femur and decrease of relative weight of the femur. The dry matter contents (g/kg) of femur
increased linearly, however, the amounts of MM, ether extract, Ca, P, Mg, Na and K were not
affected by the treatments. The values found in this study ranged from 134.84 to 155.90 g
of Ca, 48.14 to 55.95 g of P, 1.69 to 1.87 g of Mg, 2.87 to 3.24 g of Na and 1.42 to 1.61 g of
K/kg of bone “in natura” for animals with smaller and higher slaughter weight, respectively.
The biometric and densitometric variables increased linearly with increasing treatments,
except for the thickness of the sponge layer of the proximal and distal epiphysis and BMD
measured in the distal epiphysis. The supplementation with concentrate did not affect the
chemical composition of the femur, although it has positively influenced the structure and
the bone mineral density. A BMD estimated via radiographic bone aluminum equivalent
did not have correspondence with bone mineral content measured chemically
