Environmental factors affecting kid mortality in shami goats [Şam keçilerinin oǧlak ölümlerini etkileyen çevresel faktörler]

A total of 1.190 records from shami goat kids were collected between 1993 and 2006 from izra'a research station,south of damascus,syria. the records were used to evaluate the some environmental factors affecting kid mortality rate at birth (0-3 days) and from the forth day after birth until weaning at 90 days. the least squares means of mortality rate at birth and from birth to weaning were 0.12±0.01 and 0.06±0.01,respectively. parity had a significant effect (p<0.05) on the mortality at birth and from birth to weaning. year of birth had a highly significant effect (p<0.01) on kid mortality at birth,but no effect was found on the mortality from birth to weaning. similarly type of birth significantly affected (p<0.05) kid mortality at birth,but not from birth to weaning. it was concluded that kid mortality of shami goats could be affected by environmental factors. however,better management might reduce the effect of these factors.