Kid s Growth of Pure Breeds and Crossed Caprine Genotypes in the Coastal Oases of Southern Tunisia

A data issued from 16 years performances schedule of local goat, Alpine, Damascus, Murciana and crossed groups was used to study the genotypes productive behaviour under Tunisian oases conditions. The aim is to evaluate the possibilities of local goat productivity improvement by cross breeding in intensive mode and also, to choose the better improving breed and the propice crossing level. So, data of periodic individual weighing was used to estimates kid s weight at some standard ages of studied genetic goats groups. Statistical analysis of about 11500 kid s weights shows that, the cross breeding allows to improve the growth performances since the first generation with respect to local population production. ANOVA test shows an important effect of genotypes and environment upon kids weights (p< 0.01). The kid s weight averages at birth and at 120 days age were about 3.49 and 15.78 kg, respectively. The cross breeding second generation allows the better improvement of local goat potentialities kid s weight at 120 days reaches 16.19 kg for Damascus x local genotype. All imported breeds registered low performances than those known in their original regions.