**The Development and Genetic Improvement of South African Goats African Goats**

**The Development and Genetic Improvement of South** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.70065

Carina Visser and Este van Marle‐Köster

[72] Cai R, Hettiarachchy NS, Jalaluddin M. High-performance liquid chromatography determination of phenolic constituents in 17 varieties of cowpeas. Journal of Agricultural and

[73] Adjei-Fremah S, Asiamah E, Ekwemalor K, Osei B, Ismail H, Jackai LE, Worku M. The anti-inflammatory effect of cowpea polyphenol in bovine blood. Journal of Animal

[74] Ojwang LO, Banerjee N, Noratto GD, Angel-Morales G, Hachibamba T, Awika JM, Mertens-Talcott SU. Polyphenolic extracts from cowpea (*Vigna unguiculata*) protect colonic myofibroblasts (CCD18Co cells) from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflam-

[75] Karasawa K, Uzuhashi Y, Hirota M, Otani H. A matured fruit extract of date palm tree (*Phoenix dactylifera* L.) stimulates the cellular immune system in mice. Journal of

[76] Surai PF. Polyphenol compounds in the chicken/animal diet: From the past to the future.

[77] VanGuilder HD, Vrana KE, Freeman WM. Twenty-five years of quantitative PCR for

[78] Yin JL, Shackel NA, Zekry A, McGuinness PH, Richards C, Van Der Putten K, et al. Real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for measurement of cytokine and growth factor mRNA expression with fluorogenic probes or SYBR green

[79] Adjei-Fremah S, Jackai LE, Schimmel K, Worku M. Microarray analysis of the effect of cowpea (*Vigna unguiculata*) phenolic extract in bovine peripheral blood. Journal of

[80] Ekwemalor K, Asiamah E, Osei B, Ismail H, Worku M. Evaluation of the effect of probiotic administration on gene expression in goat blood. Journal of Molecular Biology

[81] Gyenai K, Worku M, Tajkarimi M, Ibrahim S. Influence of probiotics on coccidia, H. contortus and markers of infection in goats. American Journal of Animal and Veterinary

[82] Desjardins P, Conklin D. NanoDrop microvolume quantitation of nucleic acids. Journal

[83] Salvesen Ø, Reiten MR, Heegaard PM, Tranulis MA, Espenes A, Skovgaard K, Ersdal C. Activation of innate immune genes in caprine blood leukocytes after systemic endo-

[84] Bulgari O, Dong X, Roca AL, Caroli AM, Loor JJ. Innate immune responses induced by lipopolysaccharide and lipoteichoic acid in primary goat mammary epithelial cells.

mation—Modulation of microRNA 126. Food & Function. 2015;**6**(1):145-153

Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2011;**59**:11287-11293

gene expression analysis. BioTechniques. 2008;**44**(5):619

I. Immunology and Cell Biology. 2001;**79**(3):213

Applied Animal Research. 2016;**46**(1):100-106

of Visualized Experiments: JoVE. 2010;**45**:1-4

toxin challenge. BMC Veterinary Research. 2016;**12**(1):241

Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology. 2017;**8**(1):29

Research. 2017;**7**(1):88

Sciences. 2016;**11**(3):91-99

Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition. 2014;**98**:19-31

Food Chemistry. 2003;**51**:1623-1627

18 Goat Science

Science. 2017;**95**(Suppl. 4):27-27

Carina Visser and Este van Marle‐Köster Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70065

#### **Abstract**

South Africa has a thriving goat industry, consisting of fiber, meat and dairy‐producing goat breeds. These animals play an important role in terms of food security, socioeco‐ nomic welfare and cultural well‐being. The South African goat industry is differentiated into a formal, commercial market with niche products such as mohair, chevon and goat's cheeses versus the informal, mainly meat‐producing sector serving communal and small‐ holder farmers. Exotic and locally improved breeds, i.e., Angora, Saanen and Boer goats mainly serve the commercial industries, whereas the unimproved veld goat populations are well adapted in the resource‐poor environments. Genetic improvement has histori‐ cally been limited to the commercial breeds, but poor participation in animal recording and improvement schemes have resulted in slow genetic progress, with the exception of the Angora goat. Molecular research has opened up new possibilities for genetic charac‐ terization, preservation and utilization of the unique genetic resources retained by these animals.

**Keywords:** animal recording, genetic parameters, indigenous breeds, molecular genetics, quantitative selection

## **1. Introduction**

South Africa contributes almost 50% to the Southern African goat population [1] with approx‐ imately 5.62 million animals [2] distributed throughout nine provinces. Approximately 2 mil‐ lion of these animals are found in the Eastern Cape Province, almost 1 million in Limpopo Province and just over 700,000 in KwaZulu‐Natal Province. The remaining provinces share the remaining 1.8 million animals. The Angora goat population of approximately 640,000 goats is the major contributor to the income generated in the formal goat sector, by supplying

Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons

more than 50% of the global mohair clip. The commercial meat goat industry, consisting of the Boer, Savannah and the Kalahari Red breeds makes up 1.3 million goats, with commercial dairy goats being the smallest sector, with approximately 4000 registered dairy goats. The majority (approximately 63%) of South African goats consist of unimproved indigenous veld goats in the noncommercialized agricultural sector and are kept under small‐scale conditions.
