Growth, carcass, and physiological traits of growing male China Micro-ducks fed various levels of dietary crude fibre

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the responses of growth performance, organ development, carcass characteristics, and serum biochemical parameters to the diets with different levels of crude fibre (CF) in growing male China Micro-ducks (CMD). A total of 240 nineteen-day-old CMD were blocked on the basis of body weight, and then randomly allocated to four treatments, each with 6 replicate pens of 10 ducklings. The formal feeding experiment lasted for 35 days. The CF levels for four diets were 16.7, 42.6, 77.9, and 101.6 g/kg of dry matter (DM), respectively. The diet with the CF level of 101.6 g/kg of DM resulted in the first-rank growth performance, followed by the diets with the CF level of 42.6 and 77.9 g/kg of DM, and then the diet with the CF level of 16.7 g/kg of DM. The diet with the CF level of 42.6 g/kg of DM led to the optimum slaughter performance, followed by the diets with the CF levels of 16.7 and 77.9 g/kg of DM, and then the diet with the CF level of 101.6 g/kg of DM. With the increase of the CF level in the diets, the serum glucose concentration and the relative weights of proventriculus and gizzard significantly rose (P < 0.05), but the serum concentrations of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and creatinine, the percentages of head, feet, and abdominal fat, and the relative weights of liver, jejunum, and ileum significantly decreased (P < 0.05). For the percentages of pectoral muscle and lean meat and the relative weight of thymus, dietary treatment with the CF level of 16.7 g/kg of DM was significantly lower than the other dietary treatments (P < 0.05). The recommended range of dietary CF level for growing male CMD should therefore be between 42.6 and 77.9 g/kg of DM.

Responses of chemical composition, amino acid and fatty acid profiles of breast muscle to dietary crude fibre levels in China Micro-Ducks

“…Yang (2002) asserted that alfalfa can be fed to waterfowl because the CF derived from alfalfa is largely digestible. According to production practice, it has been observed that CMD adapts well to various fibrous feedstuffs (Wang et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2017). The present results revealed that dietary fibre levels also altered the ratios of some constituents existing in the breast muscle of growing CMD.…”

“…The experimental design and procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Southwest University following the requirements of the Regulations for the Administration of Affairs Concerning Experimental Animals of China (The State Science and Technology Commission, 1988). The bird husbandry and the experimental design have been described in detail by Wang et al (2017). The experimental diets (Table 1) were formulated to meet or exceed the NRC (1994) recommendations for growing ducks.…”

“…China Micro-duck (CMD) is a complete set line which was developed from selective hybridisation between several specialised native and domestic sheldrakes/shelducks (Wang et al, 2013). In the actual production process, it was found that the CMD has a strong resistance to a wide range of fibrous feedstuffs (Wang et al, 2017).…”

Effect of probiotics, <i>Saccharomyces</i> spp.Kb-5 and Kb-8, in diets on growth performance and cholesterol levels in ducks

“…At the end of the experiment, the birds were weighed and feed consumption was recorded to calculate average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake based on dry matter (DM) and FCR (feed DM intake/weight gain). The birds were deprived of feed for 12 hours (water was provided) before weighing to ensure that the digestive tracts of the birds (Wang et al, 2017) were emptied. Mortality was recorded daily as it occurred.…”

“…The dressed percentage was calculated by dividing the dressing weight by the slaughter weight. The half-eviscerated weight was evaluated as the weight of carcass without trachea, oesophagus, pseudo-crop, guts, spleen, pancreas, gall bladder, reproduction organs and the chime and gizzard (Wang et al, 2017). The eviscerated weight was quantified when the weights of heart, liver, proventriculus, gizzard, lungs and abdominal fat were subtracted from the half-eviscerated weight.…”