Recent nutritional strategies and feed additives to stimulate proper rumen development in young goats

Domestic goats (Capra aegagrus hircus) are important producers of milk, meat, and hair. The early weaned goats may face fundamental issues related to the incomplete rumen development to deal with the transition from liquid feeds into solid feeds. Therefore, the present review focuses on the nutritional strategies and feeding methods to enhance the proper rumen morphological development, fermentation efficiency and microbiota structure in young goats. The enhanced rumen development caused by these nutritional strategies can have lasting positive effects on their overall growth performance and health status, leading to decreasing mortality rates and susceptibility to disease after weaning. A wide range of areas was summarized including liquid feed management in preweaning goats (colostrum, milk, and milk replacer), solid feed management (concentrate and roughages), endogenous and exogenous volatile fatty acids and ketones, plant extracts, prebiotics and probiotics as well as rumen microbial contents that can be incorporated into the kids as an alternative to antibiotics to avoid pathogens and enhance the proper establishment of microbial community. Such nutritional strategies and current breeding recommendations can be used for the development of young goats' production systems to enhance the long-term digestive function efficiency in goats.