The glucose tolerance of the West African dwarf goats

Glucose tolerance tests conducted on 4 adult goats and 3 kids, injecting glucose intravenously (0.5 g/kg body weight), showed that the former required 180 min and the latter 45 min after injection, to restore blood glucose to normal. For the adult goats, the turnover rate (K) was 0.38 +/- 0.03/hr, turnover time (TT) 2.64 +/- 0.18 hr and half-time (T 1/2) 110.24 +/- 7.73 min for glucose clearance while for the kids, these were 1.59 +/- 0.12/hr, 0.64 +/- 0.04 hr and 26.05 +/- 4.36 min respectively. The higher glucose clearance in the kids than in the adults may be attributed to a more efficient insulin response and to greater glucose utilization than in the former. The dwarf goats appear to differ substantially from the cows in their homeostatic responses to induced hyperglycemia.