Abstract
An investigation was conducted to evaluate the zinc status of three different classes of grazing goats on the basis of zinc concentrations in pasture and animal samples as affected by season and class of animals in central Punjab, Pakistan. Soil, water, plasma, urine, and fecal zinc levels of lactating and male goats did not show seasonal differences while forage, feed and milk zinc concentrations in lactating and faeces in non lactating animals had seasonal variations with greater concentrations in winter than in summer except feed which was higher in summer than that in winter. Mean soil, forage and plasma zinc concentrations were adequate for plants and animals requirements during both seasons. Milk concentration of zinc showed seasonal variation with being consistently higher in winter than in summer. In both seasons, most milk samples had lower/higher zinc concentrations than reported reference values of goat milk. The overall zinc status of these goats based on pasture and animal samples may be considered adequate mainly due to supplemental feed provided containing different amount of zinc, since forage zinc concentration were deficient particularly in summer season
