The determination of hosting possibilities of goat breeding in Antalya province and its evaluation in terms of animal welfare

Sheep and goat breeding is a branch of husbandry preferred in our country due to its suitability of geographical and climatic conditions. Ovine breeding which is conducted based in pastures and minimizes the feeding costs, also has a high fertility is known as a type of breeding with a high profit margin. Mediterranean Region is the place where the goat breeding is performed the most in our country. Mersin and Antalya provinces in the Mediterranean Region come into prominence in goat breeding. In this master's thesis, the general properties of the goat breeding businesses in Antalya, their structural conditions, animal welfare and health implementations have been studied. In this regard, 95 businesses which were identified by using statistical method have been included into the study. As a result, it has been determined that the 62,11% of the business owners is primary school graduate, 28,42% of them is high school graduate and 9,47% is university graduate. 75,79% of the goat breeding businesses performs breeding as a main source of income and 24,21% of them as a side income. 72,63% of the businesses uses close pen system while 27,37% of them prefers open pen system. 98,95% of the pens does not have project and only 1,05% of them has project. It has been detected that construction materials such as nylon and rock which can be provided in the region easily and whose investment cost is low are mostly used in the pen constructions. It has been also identified that goats frequently have lameness, udder anomalies such as sagging and blind udders since the goat breeding in the region is performed with the method of herding in pastures and due to the unfavorable housing conditions.