USING EARLY LIVE BODY PERFORMANCE TRAITS OF DUCKS TO PREDICT MARKETING WEIGHT

Abstract

From five hundred and seventy four male ducks of Sudani (SUD, N= 290) and Muscovy (MUS, N= 284) breeds have been used to predict marketing weight (MW) at 12 weeks of age, employing three early live body performance traits (LBPTs) at 2, 4 and 6 weeks of age, viz keel length (KL), breast girth (BG) and body weight (BW). The results indicated that BW, KL and BG increased with advantage of age. The average daily gain of BW was found to be decreased between the two age stages (2-4 and 4-6 wks), while KL and BG increased in both breeds. BW demonstrated the highest coefficient of variation (CV%) among all LBPTs at all growth stages for the two breeds. For 2-week SUD ducklings, MW had a single linear relationship with KL (coefficient of determination, R2, = 61%), BG (R2 = 41%) and BW (R2 = 3%). In SUD breed, R2 showed increases to 74%, 68% and 79% when combining KL with BW at 2 weeks, KL with BG at 4 weeks and BW with BG at 6 weeks. MW of MUS ducklings at 2 weeks, showed to be in a simple linear relationship with KL (R2 = 15%) and BW (R2 = 74%). Increases in R2 to 84%, 86% and 91% were noticed when combining KL with BW at 2, 4 and 6 weeks, respectively. Admittance of a third variable did not increase R2 more than 9% whatever the age group or breed. However, for practical purposes, as early as 2 weeks of age, MW appeared to be predictable from early live body performance traits especially with KL in SUD duckling birds and BW in MUS duckling birds.