Abstract
This study investigates the effects of replacing fish meal with fermented feather meal-soybean meal product (FFSMP) from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CU33 in the starter on growth performance, relative health performance, and digestibility of Alpine goat kids. In trial 1, thirty-two Alpine goat kids (male) were randomly assigned to dietary supplementation of 2% feather meal-soybean meal mix (FSM), 2% fish meal, or replacing fish meal with 50% or 100% FFSMP (FFSMP-50 or FFSMP-100) in starter (n = 8). In trial 2, sixteen goat kids were selected after trial 1 and used in this digestion trial which began from 12 weeks old. The treatments were the same as in trial 1 (n = 4). In trial 1, the growth performance of the FFSMP groups was better than the FSM group at 0 to 10 weeks (p < 0.05). The fecal consistency index of the FFSMP-100 group was better than the FSM group at 0 to 5 weeks and 5 to 10 weeks. In trial 2, the crude protein (CP) digestibility of the FSM group decreased (p < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary supplementation with 2% FFSMP in goat kids' diets can improve the growth performance, the CP digestibility, and diarrhea status, and it can completely replace the fish meal in starter diets.