Genetic characterization for growth traits and performance of Kuzi ducks being selected for higher eight week body weight

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2190264/v1

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Genetic characterization for growth traits and performance of Kuzi ducks being selected for higher eight week body weight

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2190264/v1

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The study was conducted to evaluate genetic parameters of growth traits of Kuzi ducks of Odisha, India and its performance in respect to growth and production traits under intensive system of rearing. A total of 973 sire pedigreed ducklings produced in seven hatches (parents being selected for higher 8 weeks body weight) are being used for the study. For genetic characterization data of 875 ducklings that were having wing bands till 10 weeks of age were used. Sexual dimorphism was evident in this ducks at 5 weeks of age. The ducklings recorded more than 1 kg body weight at 6 weeks of age. The primary traits of selection 8 week body weight were 1474 and 1383 g, in male and female respectively. The heritability for the body weight were moderate to high in magnitude and the heritability estimates at 6 and 7 weeks of age were 0.44 ± 0.14 and 0.45 ± 0.14, respectively and the estimates for 8 week was 0.22 ± 0.09. Genetic correlations between body weights were high in magnitude after initial 3 weeks of age. Growing period body weight revealed not much increase after 16 weeks of age. Multicolour plumage was dominant in the flock where as brown and pink were found more in respect to bill and shank colour. The ducks reached 50% hen housed egg production at 133 days of age. The egg production of the ducks up to 72 weeks of age was 251 eggs. The egg weight increases as the age advances and recorded more than 70 g from 36 weeks onwards. Egg quality parameters were of acceptable range. Mortality was higher during 40 to 72 weeks of age. The results revealed that the Kuzi ducks can be subject for higher growth rate through selection; however, the egg production was quite encouraging indicating a suitable breeding strategy for this indigenous duck for its further improvement and commercial use. Further, this study indicates that the indigenous ducks available in the countries may be screened for production parameters and top producer may be use for selection for improvement rather than going for exotic germplasm.

body weight

heritability

egg production

egg weight

egg quality

Kuzi ducks

Ducks is the second most important species after chicken. Ducks are popular in Asia and in other parts of the world. In Asian countries indigenous ducks are being used for duck egg and meat production. In India more than 90% of duck populations are of indigenous type and they are mostly used for egg production under backyard and the egg production from these ducks under backyard system varies from 70 to 186 eggs in different states (Anonymous 2020). Due to many advantages of duck over chicken the ducks are still being popular as backyard venture in many under developed and developing countries of the world. Indigenous duck performance in different countries were being reported few of them are like In India (Mahanta et al. 1997; Senani et al. 2005; Gajendran et al. 2009; Padhi 2010, 2014; Kamal et al. 2020, Padhi et al. 2021) In Bangladesh (Islam et al. 2012; Bhuiyan et al. 2017; Momu and Hossain 2022), China (Lin et al. 2016), Indonesia (Ismoyowati and Sumaramono 2019) Vietnam (Nind and Tu, 1998), Taiwan ( Tai 1985, Cheng et al. 2003). Selection in indigenous duck for improvement in literature are very few except Brown Tsaiya by Tai (1985), Cheng et al. (2003), Chera-Chembali by Cyriac et al. (2020a) and Kuzi by Padhi et al. (2022). So there is scope for improvement in indigenous ducks which are well acclimatized to the climate of the country. This also holds good for different countries having indigenous duck population. Keeping this in view present study is being carried out in Kuzi ducks to measure the genetic parameters of growth traits in second generation of selection for higher body weight at 8 weeks of age and to evaluate the birds for production performance and egg quality. The results obtained may be of practical utility in India and other countries having similar environmental condition to improve the indigenous duck. The findings on the performance may be used for effective utilization of the breed to improve the livelihood of rural farmers as well as for commercial exploitation.

Location of the study

The study was conducted at Regional station of ICAR-Directorate of Poultry research, Bhubaneswar earlier it was Regional Centre, ICAR-Central Avian Research Institute, Bhubaneswar. The climate of the location is hot and humid with annual rain fall average of 200 cm and the average maximum and minimum temperature of 38^o C and 28⁰ C, respectively. Sometimes the highest temperature in summer reaches up to 45^o C. The location is situated between 20.9517 N latitude and 85.0985^o E longitude. The average relative humidity of the location is around 77% although it varies from 68% during winter (January) to 88% during monsoon (July). Most humid month is July with humidity varies from 70.4–97.3%.

Experimental population

The breed of duck used for the present study was Kuzi ducks in its second generation which were being selected for higher eight week body weight in S0 and S1 generation. Kuzi duck collected from different parts of Odisha and a small population of Kuzi ducks available in the Regional Station of ICAR- Central Avian Research Institute, Bhubaneswar (presently under ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Hyderabad) form the base generation of the Kuzi ducks. S1and S2 generations were produced by using 40 sire and 160 dams. Pen mating using 4 dams and 1 sire being used and a total of 40 breeding pen were utilized. The hatching eggs were marked as per the sire number and were set at 7 days interval. Ducklings hatched in seven hatches were wing banded sire wise and the birds having wing band up to 10 weeks (875 numbers) were used for phenotypic characteristics like plumage colour, bill colour, shank colour and for the genetic study. Sexing was done at 8 weeks of age. After 10 and 16 weeks of age most of the male birds were selected according to higher eight week body weight and all the females were kept for growing up to 20 weeks of age. Again after 40 and 52 weeks of age some males and females were discarded having lower body weight at 8 weeks of age and having some deformities. Due to lack of sufficient laying pen after 60 weeks only females of 4 hatches were kept for laying up to 72 weeks of age.

Rearing and management

The ducklings were brooded for 8 weeks under standard brooding practices in an open sided house on deep litter. Initial five days the litter were covered with old news paper and it was replaced with new one every day morning. Whenever the litters were wet it was removed and replaced with dry and fresh litter material. All the hatches were reared separately throughout the experimental period. Litter material use for this experiment was rice husk. During brooding wheat based starter mash having crude protein 20% and ME of 2900 kcal/kg was provided. After selection on 10 weeks on basis of high 8 weeks body weight the selected male and all available female were kept for growing with standard grower management with duck grower ration containing crude protein 16% and ME 2600 kcal/kg. During laying period ducks were fed wheat based diet containing 19% CP and 2600 kcal/kg ME. Layer diets were fed to the ducks at 17 weeks of age. Standard feeding and health care facility during, brooding, growing and laying period were followed. The feed ingredients used in the ration formulations were wheat, soya bean meal, fish meal, deoiled rice bran, salt and vitamin premix, lysine, dl-methionine, trace minerals, shell grit, and di-calcium phosphate. The layer ration was supplemented with extra shell grit so that the calcium content made up to 4.5% of the ration. The birds were provided ad-lib water in tub having water depth of approximately six inches sufficient to immerse their head. Drinking water and feed were provided ad-libitum throughout the experiment. Photoperiod was adjusted to 16 hours per day from 18 weeks of age by providing artificial light during the laying period.

Traits measured

Body weight were measured at day old and then at weekly interval up to 8 weeks of age using a sensitive weighing scale balance with a precision up to 0.5 g. Conformation traits (shank length, keel length and bill length) were recorded at eight weeks of age in both male and female. Plumage colour, bill and shank colour were observed visually for each bird at 8 weeks of age and recorded in the flock. When the bird has more than two colours it was taken as multicolour plumage. When two colours were present in a particular body part observed then the two colours were recorded. The phenotypic features were observed, identified and documented properly. The ducks and drake selected at 10 weeks of age; the body weights during growing were recorded at 10, 12 and 16 weeks of age. Laying period body weights were recorded at 20, 40, 52 and 60 weeks of age. For production parameters like age at first egg of the flock and age of the flock at 20, 50 and 80% duck day egg production per bird of each hatch was taken as a replicate and the average of hatches were calculated. Similarly for number of egg per bird up to 16 weeks, 16–20, 20–40, 40–60, 60–72, 20–72 weeks of age and egg production up to 40, 60 and 72 weeks of age of each hatch was taken as replicate as individual bird egg production were not possible to record on deep litter system. Egg production of each hatch was recorded daily along with number of birds. Egg weights were recorded at 4 weeks interval starting from 20 weeks of age. Efforts were made to record 40 eggs from each hatch from seven days at the particular weeks. So the numbers of eggs recorded for egg weight were different at different weeks of age. Mortality if any was recorded every day.

Egg quality traits were recorded in 80 eggs at 40 weeks of age from the eggs collected at 40 weeks for the first 4 hatches of the flock. For these individual eggs were weighed. Lengths and breadths were measured using a digital vernier caliper. After this the eggs were broken on a flat surface. The height of the albumen was measured half way between the yolk and the edge of the inner thick albumen by using spherometer. Widths of albumen were measured by digital Vernier caliper. The height of yolk with albumen intact was measured along with width. Shape index, albumen index, yolk index and Haugh unit were calculated as per the formula of Shultz (1953), Heiman and Carver (1936), Funk (1948) and Haugh (1937), respectively. There after albumen was separated from yolk and the weight of albumen, yolk and shell with membrane were recorded and their percentages from total egg weight were calculated. Shell thickness with inner membrane and thickness without inner membranes (removing inner membrane manually) were measured at three places of shell (top, middle and bottom) using a paper gauge meter. Shell thickness was calculated taking the average of the three measurements. Yolk color was measured using a DSM yolk fan™ (DSM 2016) as per the guidelines. Different egg quality parameters like shape index, albumen index, yolk index, yolk color, Haugh unit, albumen %, yolk %, Shell %, shell thickness were calculated

Statistical analysis

Juvenile body weight and conformation data were analysed using least square technique (Harvey 1990) with a computer package and the hatch corrected data were utilized for estimating the heritability estimates by variance component analysis (King and Henderson 1954). Genetic and phenotypic correlations were estimated from variance-covariance component analysis (Becker 1975). All other body weight data, production data, egg quality, egg weights data were analysed as per Snedercor and Cochran (1994). Percent of population in collect the data for the traits.

Least square means of male female and straight run ducklings in respect to body weight and conformation traits are presented in Table 1. No significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences between the sexes up to 4 weeks body weight were observed. However, sexual dimorphism were evident from 5 weeks onward both for body weights and conformation traits like shank length (SL), Keel length (KL) and bill length (BL). Male birds recorded higher body weight and conformation traits than female. The body weight recoded more than 1000g at 6 weeks of age irrespective of sexes. The observed values between different periods of one week weight gain in straight run ducklings by simple subtracting the least square means the weight gain were 65, 160, 196, 209, 242, 193, 190, 133 g for the period between 0–1. 1–2, 2–3, 3–4, 4–5, 5–6,6–7, 7–8 weeks, respectively. The higher weight gain is between the periods from 2 to 7 weeks of age and then onwards the gain decreases. SL, KL and BL were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher in male than female.

Table 1

Least square estimates of different juvenile traits in S2 generation of Kuzi ducks
Traits	Male (423)	Female (452)	Male and female Pooled (875)
Day old (g)	41.16 ± 0.20	41.08 ± 0.20	41.12 ± 0.14
1BW (g)	105.57 ± 0.75	105.63 ± 0.73	105.60 ± 0.53
2BW (g)	266.74 ± 2.02	265.67 ± 1.97	266.20 ± 1.43
3BW(g)	463.11 ± 3.46	459.87 ± 3.37	461.49 ± 2.45
4BW (g)	674.25 ± 4.14	668.02 ± 4.04	671.13 ± 2.93
5BW (g)	922.20^a ± 5.09	904.40^b ± 4.97	913.29^ab ± 3.61
6BW (g)	1120.34^a ± 5.68	1090.86^b ± 5.54	1105.63^ab ± 4.02
7BW (g)	1327.26^a ± 6.10	1264.03^c ± 5.94	1295.65^b ± 4.32
8BW (g)	1473.79^a ± 6.95	1383.89^c ± 6.77	1428.84^b ± 4.92
10BW (g)	1606.58^a ± 7.62	1465.10^c ± 7.43	1535.84^b ± 5.40
8SL (mm)	74.18^a0.19	71.37^c ± 0.19	72.78^b ± 0.14
8KL (mm)	121.06^a0.34	116.28^c ± 0.33	118.69^b ± 0.24
8BL (mm)	66.86^a0.18	64.41^c ± 0.17	65.64^b ± 0.13
In first column BW = Body weight, SL = Shank length, KL = keel length, BL = bill length

Heritability estimates from sire component are presented in Table 2 and the estimates revealed that the heritability values were moderate to high in magnitude for body weight. The estimates decreased at higher age compared to the initial body weights. The heritability estimates for 8 week body weight was lowest amongst all other body weights traits where estimates were available. Genetic correlations between body weights were all positive and high in magnitude except between the weight at initial measurements. Genetic correlation (Table 3) between bill length and body weights were low to moderate in magnitude. Phenotypic correlation (Table 3) between body weights and body weight with bill length were positive and low to moderate in magnitude.

Table 2

Heritability estimates for growth traits and bill length
Trait	Heritability (h²)	SE
Day old	0.43	0.14
1BW	-	-
2BW	0.29	0.10
3BW	0.31	0.11
4BW	0.28	0.10
5BW	0.28	0.11
6BW	0.44	0.14
7BW	0.45	0.14
8BW	0.22	0.09
8BL	0.20	0.09
10BW	0.25	0.09
BW = Body weght, SL = Shank length, KL = Keel length, BL = Bill length

Table 3

Genetic (above the diagonal) and Phenotypic (below the diagonal) correlation coefficients in ducks
	0day	2BW	3BW	4BW	5BW	6BW	7BW	8BW	8BL	10BW
0day	*	0.21	0.21	0.19	0.20	0.39	0.42	0.41	0.20	0.34
2BW	0.08	*	0.11	0.09	0.03	0.93	0.80	0.58	0.15	0.31
3BW	0.12	0.36	*	0.02	0.92	0.90	0.77	0.70	0.05	0.46
4BW	0.98	0.37	0.42	*	0.12	0.97	0.83	0.71	0.05	0.60
5BW	0.12	0.28	0.30	0.44	*	0.92	0.88	0.74	0.21	0.71
6BW	0.13	0.33	0.30	0.38	0.63	*	0.95	0.89	0.40	.079
7BW	0.11	0.24	0.24	0.34	0.39	0.57	*	0.96	0.30	0.88
8BW	0.04	0.19	0.17	0.21	0.27	0.36	0.55	*	0.58	0.01
8BL	0.07	0.09	0.12	0.13	0.18	0.26	0.30	0.36	*	0.83
10BW	0.06	0.15	0.13	0.20	0.23	0.29	0.48	0.32	0.35	*

The growing period and laying period body weight are presented in Table 4. As evident the male recorded higher body weight than female irrespective the age of measurement. It was observed that for female 20 week body weight was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher than the body weight recorded at 12 and 16 week indicating the gain in body weight was continuing till 20 week of age in female. However, in male the same trends were not observed. During laying period the body weight at 40 week was lower both in male and female and then at 52 and 60 weeks of age the male gain body weight compared to 16 weeks of age. In female the body weight significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lower at 40 and 52 weeks of age compared to 20 weeks of age however at 60 weeks of age the birds gain comparable body weight observed at 20 weeks.

Table 4

Growing and laying period body weight
Age in week	Male	Female
12	1711^cd ± 10 (283)	1498^c ± 7 (480)
16	1756^ab ± 11 (245)	1637^b ± 8 (480)
20	1738^bc ± 12 (189)	1732^a ± 9 (480)
40	1680^d ± 14 (148)	1642^b ± 10 (465)
52	1796^a ± 19 (95)	1661^b ± 11 (448)
60	1798^a ± 23 (60)	1706a ± 15 (176)
Values in parenthesis were no of birds measured
Means showing even one common superscript in a column did not differ significantly (P < 0.05).

External colour characteristics of plumage, bill and shank were presented in Table 5. Multicolour plumage was dominant amongst the birds however about 20% of the birds were having either two colour plumage or single colour. Low % of ash colour, light pink, white and blue plumage were also seen. Bill colour of the birds at 8 weeks of age has different colour however light pink and brown bill colour were mostly seen in the flock. Variations in shank colour of the flock were also evident in the Kuzi ducks and like bill colour brown and light pink are dominant. Combination of two colour and spotted shank was also observed in the flock.

Table 5

External colour characteristics of Kuzi ducks at 8 weeks of age in straight run ducklings
External parts	Colour	Frequency	% of total number of 875 birds
Plumage colour
	Multicolour	697	79.66
	Black and White	63	7.20
	Fawn	24	2.74
	Brown	20	2.29
	Brown and White	17	1.94
	Khaki	17	1.94
	Black	12	1.37
	Black and pink	7	0.80
	Ash	5	0.57
	Light Pink	5	0.57
	White	5	0.57
	Blue	3	0.34
Bill colour
	Light Pink	349	39.83
	Brown	268	30.64
	Black	83	9.47
	Blue	56	6.41
	Spotted	49	5.57
	Black and pink	29	3.34
	Blue and pink	27	3.04
	Brown and pink	12	1.39
	Yellow	2	0.28
Shank Colour
	Brown	356	40.69
	Light Pink	332	37.94
	Yellow	107	12.23
	Black	29	3.31
	Black and pink	12	1.37
	Brown and pink	12	1.37
	Orange	10	1.14
	Black and brown	5	0.57
	Pink and yellow	5	0.57
	Brown and yellow	3	0.34
	Blue	2	0.23
	Spotted	2	0.23

Age of the flock at different production level is presented in Table 6. The first egg obtained in the flock at 101 days. However, age of the flock at 20% duck day egg production was obtained at 119 days and age of the flock at 50% duck day production was observed at 133 days of age. From the start of the first egg laying to reach 50% duck day egg production the flock taken only 32 days. From 50% duck day egg production to reached 80% duck day egg production the flock taken 41 days. Egg productions per bird at different periods are presented in Table 7. Though the egg production stars in the flock before 16 week but only few eggs laid up to 16 weeks. However from 16–20 weeks of age 11.28 eggs were laid per bird. Egg production from 20–40 was highest and from 40 to 60 period about 86 eggs laid compared to 101 eggs during 20–40 weeks. During later parts of the production cycle the egg production from 60–72 weeks of age was 50 eggs. The egg production from starts of laying up to 72 week of age was 251 egg and egg production from 20 to 72 weeks of age 239 eggs.

Table 6

Age at different production level
Parameters	Values *
AFEF (day)	100.57 ± 1.74
AFEP20 (day)	119.43 ± 1.30
AFEP50 (day)	133.14 ± 2.30
AFEP80 (day)	174.07 ± 9.19
AFEF: Age at first egg of the flock, AFEP20: Age of the flock at 20% Duck house egg production, AFEP50: Age of the flock at 50% Duck house egg production, AFEP80: Age of the flock at 80% Duck house egg production .
*Values are average of 7 hatches

Table 7

Egg production per bird for different period
Period	Number of egg	No of hatches use for average	To total no of females available
EP16	0.52 ± 0.10	7	485
EP16-20	11.28 ± 0.34	7	485
EP20-40	100.47 ± 3.25	7	485
EP40-60	85.65 ± 3.52	7	474
EP60-72	49.78 ± 0.89	4	383
EP20-72	238.55 ± 8.13	4	383
EP40	112.26 ± 3.33	7	476
EP60	197.90 ± 5.27	7	444
EP72	251.28 ± 7.84	4	383
EP: Average duck day egg production per bird. In first column16 = up to 16 week, 16–20 = 16–20 week, 20–40 = 20 to 40 week, 40–60 = 40 to 60 week, 60–72 = 60 to 72 week, 20–72 = 20 to 72 week, EP40 = egg production up to 40 week, EP60 = egg production up to 60 week, EP72 = egg production up to 72 week.

Egg weight recorded at different weeks of age starting from 20 weeks of age at four week interval up to 72 weeks of age were presented in Table 8. There was significant increase in egg weight as the age of measurements advances. The egg weight was more than 70 g at 26 weeks of age and maximum weight observed at 68 weeks of age. The trend of increasing egg weight continue up to 68 weeks of age and then change at 72 weeks of age, when the egg weight is at par with 60 weeks of age. The egg weight recorded at 20 weeks of age was more than 60 g and he increasing was significant (p ≤ 0.05) in weight up to 36 weeks of age. Egg quality traits measured at 40 weeks of age were presented in Table 9. The shape index was more than 74 and albumen index and yolk index were in the acceptable range. Yolk colour index was very low. The albumen % was less than 60% and shell % was less than 10% and yolk % obtained was 32.43%. Shell thickness data showing the values of 0.3470 mm without shell membrane. Haugh unit obtained in the present study was 90.67.

Table 8

Egg weight at different weeks of age.
Age in week	Mean ± SE (g)	No. of observation
20	60.37^j ± 0.30	1038
24	62.85ⁱ ± 0.24	777
28	66.61^h ± 0.23	890
32	67.98^g ± 0.20	1011
36	70.73^f ± 0.17	1020
40	71.23^f ± 0.16	1020
44	72.47^e ± 0.15	970
48	72.16^e ± 0.15	930
52	72.27^e ± 0.15	922
56	72.88^de ± 0.17	706
60	73.77^bc ± 0.27	270
64	74.44^ab ± 0.21	300
68	74.73^a ± 0.22	300
72	73.24^cd ± 0.25	267
g = gram, Means having even one common superscript did not differ significantly (P < 0.05).

Table 9

Egg quality traits at 40 weeks of age.
Traits	Values (N = 80)
Egg weight (g)	73.91 ± 0.64
Shape index	74.68 ± 0.42
Albumen index	0.1429 ± 0.0025
Yolk index	0.4263 ± 0.0028
Yolk colour	2.0633 ± 0.0925
Albumen %	58.16 ± 0.26
Yolk %	32.43 ± 0.26
Shell %	9.41 ± 0.11
Shell thickness with membrane (mm)	0.4497 ± 0.0049
Shell thickness without membrane (mm)	0.3470 ± 0.0043
Haugh unit	90.67 ± 0.63

Mortality % calculated for different periods were presented in Table 10. Initial mortalities during the brooding periods of 0–8 week were of acceptable range. Mortalities during the growing and initial laying period were also low in numbers. However, the mortality % during 40–60 and 60–72 weeks of age are in the higher side. It is observed that the mortality during the 60–72 weeks period was more than the period from 20–40 weeks of age.

Table 10

Mortality during different period
Period	Mortality %
0–8 wk	3.45 ± 1.63
8–20 wk	1.08 ± 0.06
20–40 wk	1.75 ± 0.26
40–60 wk	5.64 ± 0.51
60–72 wk	6.17 ± 1.62
20–72 wk	13.46 ± 1.92

Significant (p ≤ 0.05) difference between male and female at 5 weeks of age observed in the present study was different with the report of Padhi et al. (2022), where they reported significant (p ≤ 0.05) difference at 4 weeks of age. The body weights recorded in the present study was comparable up to 4 weeks of age but there after the body weight were higher than the above report. This may be due to effect of selection on the body weights which was improved in the present study. The juvenile body weight recorded in the present study at eight weeks also more. Lower body weight in other indigenous breeds than the present study were available in literatures like Bhuiyan et al. (2017) and Morduzzaman et al. (2015) in Nageswari duck of Bangladesh, Gajendran and Kartthickeyan (2009) in indigenous duck of Tamil Nadu, Padhi and Sahoo (2012) in indigenous duck of Odisha, Islam et al. (2012) in Deshi duck of Bangladesh, Tai et al. (1989) in Brown Tsaiya duck and Cyriac et al. (2020a) in Kuttanad duck of Kerala. Cyriac et al. (2020b) also reported effect of selection on the improvement of body weight which is also evident in the present study compare to author’s earlier publication (Padhi et al. 2022). The weight gains observed between 2 to 4 and 4 to 6 weeks of age were comparable with the report of Cyriac et al. (2020b) in Kuttanad ducks. The high weight gain from 2 to 6 week of age was also reported by Padhi et al. (2022) in Kuzi ducks. The weight gain in different period of 1 week interval were high compare to the report of Islam et al. (2012) in Khaki Campbell, Jinding and Deshi ducks of Bangladesh. Padhi and Sahoo (2012) also reported lower body weight gain during this period in indigenous ducks. This may be due to different genetic stocks used and breed difference. Significant (p ≤ 0.05) difference between male and female ducks of Kuzi reported by the Padhi et al. (2022) in Kuzi ducks in S1 generation which is in agreement with the present findings however higher shank length than the earlier report were observed in this generation in respect to shank length and bill length but keel length was comparable to the above report. Lower measurements of conformation traits than the present findings were reported in indigenous ducks (Padhi et al. 2009a, b; Padhi and Sahoo 2012; Kamal et al. 2019, 2020). Momu and Hossain (2022) reported lower higher shank length and lower bill length in Deshi balck and white duck of Bangladesh. The difference in conformation traits may be due to different genetic stocks used and also at different year of measurements.

Moderate to high heritability estimates for body weights in ducks are available in literature. Moderate heritability for 8th week body weight was reported by Cyriac et al. (2020a) in Kuttanad ducks. Moderate to high heritability estimates from 0.36 to 0.61 was reported in Brown Tsaiya ducks by Tai et al. (1989). Heritability estimates in indigenous ducks are limited in literature. However, higher heritability estimates for juvenile body weight were reported in White Pekin ducks (Li et al. 2020; Deng et al. 2019) and Shan Ma laying ducks at 110 days of age (Lin et al. 2016). Cheng et al. (2003) reported moderate heritability for 20 week body weight in duck. Moderate heritability estimates for body weight indicates the presence of additive genetic variation in the breed and the selective breeding may be effective for the improvement of the early body weights. Decrease in estimates of heritability as the age of measurements increased during early stages as observed for the 8 and 10 week body weight in present study was in agreement with report in chicken by Padhi et al. (2015). The heritability estimate for BL was low in the present study than the earlier report by the authors in Kuzi ducks (Padhi et al. 2022). This may be due to decrease in additive variation as the generation of the flock increases. Positive high genetic correlation between body weights as observed in the present study was in agreement with the report in Kuttanad ducks by Cyrac et al (2020a). Positive and moderate phenotypic correlation between body weights was also reported by the above authors in Kuttanad ducks. The positive correlation between body weights indicates that the improvement in early body weight will increase the body weights at another age. However, lower genetic correlation between body weights at initial measurement 4 weeks of age revealed that there may be other genetic effect during this period.

The body weight recorded during growing and laying period was better than the reports as available in indigenous duck by Padhi (2010); Vij et al. (2010) in West Bengal duck, Kamal et al (2020) in Maithili duck. Tai et al. (1989) reported lower than the present body weight in Brown Tsaiya duck. Bhuiyan et al. (2017) reported 1401 g weight at sexual maturity in Nageswari duck of Bangladesh which was lower than the present study. Cyriac at al (2020b) reported body weight of 1509 g in female and 1625 in male at 12 weeks of age in Kuttanad ducks which was lower than the present study in male but higher in female. This may be due to selection in male population in the present study. The variation in body weight in different indigenous ducks may be due to genetic makeup of the flock. Decrease in body weights in between laying period also reported earlier in indigenous duck by Padhi et al. (2009b) and Padhi (2010) which were in agreement with the present findings and this may be due to better egg production during peak or some other environments effects as the birds were being kept in open sided house throughout the year.

Different plumage colours in indigenous duck were also reported in indigenous duck like Maithili duck of Bihar and indigenous duck of Odisha (Kamal et al. 2019, 2020). The plumage colour variation increased compared to earlier report of Padhi et al. (2022). This may be due to combination was increasing during pedigree mating. Multicolour plumage in indigenous duck of India also reported by other authors like Senani et al. (2005) in local duck of Andaman & Nicobar islands; Gajendran and Karthickeyan (2009) in local duck of Tamil Nadu which is in agreement with the present findings and indicates that indigenous duck are mostly of multicolour plumage this may be due to no selection being practiced for the segregation on the basis of plumage colour of birds and if the birds are segregated different variety on plumage colour may be created in this duck breed. For bill colour major % was of light pink and brown along with of other colour which indicates variation in bill colour in the stock. Variation in bill colour in Nagesweari duck was reported by Mordazzaman et al. (2015), Odisha duck by Kamal et al. (2019) and Maithili duck by Kamal et al. (2020) and were in agreement with the present findings in this duck breed. Colour variation in shank in Kuzi ducks are more compared to other indigenous breeds reported in literature like Indigenous duck of Odisha by Kamal et al. (2019), Maithili duck of Bihar by Kamal et al. (2020). More variation in this stock may be due to more number of birds observed in the study compared to the above reports and the present study was in a pedigreed population where as the reports cited were from the field with less number of ducks. The variation in shank and bill colour in the present study may be due to variation in the population and the duck were not being selected on the basis of shank or bill colour and only body weight was sole criterion of selection.

The age at 50% duck day egg production was better than the reports of Kamal et al. (2020) in Maithili duck and Padhi (2010) in indigenous duck. However, age at first egg in Brown Tsaiya duck of Taiwan was lower at 126 days (Tai et al. 1989). The higher age at sexual maturity in Kuzi may be due to selection in this breed for egg number not initiated. However, still the age at different production level was better compared to the report in other indigenous duck like female common ducks originated from an initial Pekin and Tsaiya crossbreeding where the age at first egg was recorded at139 days of age ( Burn and Larzul 2003). This may be due to present of Pekin inheritance in the common ducks which might have increased the age at first egg. Baruah et al. (1991) reported age at 20% egg production at 161.8 days in indigenous Pati ducks. Eswaran et al. (1984) reported age at sexual maturity of 158 days in Desi ducks. Dutta et al. (1995) reported age of sexual maturity in Khaki Campbell duck as 165 days under deep litter system which was higher than the age at 50% duck day egg production in the present study. This may be due to different environment and genetic makeup of the birds. Age of the flock at 80% duck day egg production observed in the present study was higher than the age at sexual maturity and only taken 41 days to reach from the age at 50% duck day egg production. The egg production observed in the present study was lower than the common ducks where they produced158.2 eggs up to 48 weeks of age as report by Brun and Larzul (2003). Cheng et al (2003) reported higher egg number up to 52 weeks of age in brown Tsaiya duck. Lower egg number than the present study was reported in indigenous Pati ducks by Baruah et al 1991. Egg production obtained in the present study was better than the reports in different indigenous breeds like Morduzzaman et al. (2015) and Bhuiyan et al. (2017) in Nageswari duck of Bangladesh. Lower egg productions, than the present study in different indigenous duck of India were also reported (Padhi 2010; Kamal et al. 2019, 2020, 2022). Sarma et al. (2015) reported 116.24 eggs up to 40 weeks of age in Chara-chemballi ducks which was better than the present findings but the egg production up to 72 weeks of age they reported 185.56 eggs was lower than the present findings. This may be due to better genetic makeup of the Kuzi breeds for higher egg production as well as potential to produce more eggs towards later parts of the cycle. It is known that the ducks have long productive life (Bhuiyan et al. 2017). So Kuzi duck may produce well towards later part of the laying cycle. Egg weight obtained at 40 weeks of age was comparable to the report of Eswaran et al. (1985) in Desi ducks and better than the reports in different indigenous ducks of India ( Senani et al. 2005; Gajendran and Karthickeyan 2009; Padhi 2010) and Bangladesh (Morduzzaman et al. 2015; Bhuiyan et al. 2017 ). Tai et al. (1989) reported lower egg weight than the present study in Brown Tsaiya ducks at 30 and 40 weeks of age. Sarma et al. (2015) reported lower egg weight at 30 and 40 week of age in Chara-Chemballi ducks of India. They also reported egg weight of 72.36 g at 50 weeks of age which was in agreement with the present findings however there egg weight at 72 weeks of age 75.67 g which was more than the present findings. This may be due to higher egg production in this breed and it is a fact that the egg number and egg weight were negatively correlated. However, the higher initial egg weight in this breed may be due to genetic architecture of this breed. Sarma et al. (2015) also reported increase in egg weight as age advances which were also observed in the present study and there was significant increase in egg weight as the age advances than the initial egg weight.

Shape index obtained in the present study was comparable to the report of Bhuiyan et al. (2017) in Nageswari ducks of Bangladesh where they reported value of 74.59 but higher than the report of Nath et al. (2021) in Pati ducks where they reported shape index of 73.23. Albumen index obtained in the present study was in agreement with the report of Nath et al. (2021) but Bhuiyan et al. (2017) reported lower albumen index this may be due to different quality of the eggs during measurement. Yolk index observed in the present study was better than the report of Bhuiyan et al. (2017) and comparable to the report of Nath et al. (2021). The yolk colour as recorded in the present study was very low compared to report of Bhuiyan et al. (2017) where they reported value of 8.42. This was because in the present study maize was replaced with wheat so there is not much pigment in the ration to give colour to yolk. Albumen % was higher than the report of Bhuiyan et al. (2017) in the present findings but yolk weight % of 32.37 was comparable to the present study. Shell % observed in the present study was comparable to the report of Padhi et al. (2009c). Egg shell thickness obtained in the present study was lower than the rports of Bhuiyan et al. (2017); Ismoyato and Sumarmono (2019) in indigenous duck of Indonesia and Nath et al. (2021). However, shell thickness with membrane was comparable to the report of Nath et al. (2021). Shell thickness in different breeds may vary and age of measurement also affects the shell thickness. Haugh unit was better than the reported literature in other breeds like Bhuiyan et al. (2017) in Nageswari duck of Bangladesh, Ismoyato and Sumarmono (2019) in indigenous duck of Indonesia. The high Haugh units indicate the better quality of the eggs. Overall the eggs of the Kuzi ducks are of acceptable quality except yolk colour which was due to feeding of wheat based diet to the ducks.

Mortality % observed in the present study was better during brooding and growing period compared to report of Sarma et al. (2017) in Chara-Chembali ducks in which they report the mortality of 5.25 up to 8 week, 3.50% from 9–30 weeks of age. However, the mortality obtained after 40 weeks up to 72 weeks was higher in the present study which needs to be required attention.

The study recorded different genetic, phenotypic and production characteristics of Kuzi ducks. The present findings indicate that the Kuzi ducks showed genetic potential to gain body weight through selection and the other parameters like egg production, egg weight, egg qualities were of acceptable range and the breeds may be used as a dual purpose birds where the male can be used for meat purpose and the females to be used for egg production. The better production potential towards later part of the laying cycle indicates this breed may of potential for profitable second cycle egg production. However, mortality towards later part of the laying cycle needs to be checked for more number of eggs from the flock.

Acknowledgement

Authors are grateful to the Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India and Director, ICAR- Directorate of Poultry Research, Hyderabad and ICAR-Central Avian Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly for financial support, infrastructure and allied facilities for the present study.

Funding

The work was supported by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India and Director, ICAR- Directorate of Poultry Research, Hyderabad and ICAR-Central Avian Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly under the project “Genetic up-breeding of duck production to strengthen livelihood security in NER of India by converging conventional and molecular techniques” . (Grant No. BT/PR24311/NER/ 95/645/2017).

Statement of Animal Rights

The present study was conducted with the approval of the Institute Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) of ICAR-Central Avian Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly (F No. CARI/CPCSEA/2019/01) as described in the approved application.

The manuscript does not contain clinical studies or patient data.

Availability of data

The data used in the study belong to Regional station, ICAR-Directorate of Poultry Research, Bhubaneswar and cannot be shared but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request as per the procedure.

Author’s contribution

Mahendra Kumar Padhi conceived and conducted experiments, collected data and analysed data; also wrote the manuscript. Sunil Chandra Giri collected the growth, conformation and phenotypic data. Santosh Kumar Sahoo collected the egg quality parameters. All the authors read and approved the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Genetic characterization for growth traits and performance of Kuzi ducks being selected for higher eight week body weight

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