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Poult Sci 2008. 87:1162-1164. doi:10.3382/ps.2007-00460
© 2008 Poultry Science Association
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METABOLISM AND NUTRITION: Research Notes

Effects of Dietary Energy on Growth Performance and Carcass Quality of White Growing Pekin Ducks from Two to Six Weeks of Age

H. P. Fan*,{dagger}, M. Xie{dagger},{ddagger}, W. W. Wang*,{dagger}, S. S. Hou*,{dagger},1 and W. Huang*,{dagger}

* Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China 100193; {dagger} State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, Beijing, China 100193; and {ddagger} College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China 100193

1 Corresponding author: houss{at}263.net


   ABSTRACT
TOP
 ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
A dose-response experiment with 6 dietary energy levels (2,600, 2,700, 2,800, 2,900, 3,000, 3,100 kcal of AME /kg) was conducted to study the effects of dietary energy on growth performance and carcass quality of White Pekin ducks from 2 to 6 wk of age. Six hundred 14-d-old White Pekin ducks were randomly divided to 6 dietary treatments, each containing 5 replicate pens with 10 males and 10 females per pen, and these birds were raised until 6 wk of age. At 42 d of age, weight gain, feed intake, and feed:gain of ducks from each pen were measured, and 2 ducks (1 male and 1 female) selected randomly from each pen were slaughtered to evaluate the yields of abdominal fat, breast meat (including pectoralis major and pectoralis minor), and leg meat (including thigh and drumstick). As dietary energy increased from 2,600 to 3,100 kcal of AME/kg, the weight gain of ducks increased significantly, and the feed intake and feed:gain decreased significantly. According to the broken-line regression analysis, the AME requirements of White Pekin ducks from 2 to 6 wk of age for optimal weight gain and feed:gain were 3,008 and 3,030 kcal/kg, respectively, when dietary protein was 18%. On the other hand, high dietary energy did not affect breast and leg meat (P > 0.05), but abdominal fat increased (P < 0.05) when dietary AME was above 2,700 kcal/kg.

Key Words: duck • energy • requirement


   INTRODUCTION
TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
In poultry diets, dietary energy-contributing ingredients are a major cost and optimal energy level is important for lowering feed cost per unit of poultry product. At present, many studies were conducted to examine the effects of the dietary energy on the growth of broiler chickens. Increasing dietary energy level could improve feed conversion rate of broilers by reducing feed intake (Jackson et al., 1982a; Dozier et al., 2006, 2007; Ghaffari et al., 2007). However, high dietary energy caused deposition of excess abdominal fat or carcass fat in broilers (Jackson et al., 1982b; Summers et al., 1992; Ghaffari et al., 2007), and this fat was usually considered to be waste product when birds were processed further, which indicated the economic loss for poultry producers. At present, although duck response to dietary energy was reported by Scott et al. (1959) and Wilson (1975), these experiments were conducted more than 30 yr ago, and the experimental data on modern duck genotype are lacking. Therefore, given the feed cost and carcass quality in modern duck production, the objective of our study was to investigate the effects of dietary energy on growth performance and carcass quality of White Pekin ducks from 2 to 6 wk of age.


   MATERIALS AND METHODS
TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
All procedures of our experiment were approved by the animal care and welfare committee of the Institute of Animal Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. One thousand 1-d-old White Pekin ducklings were obtained from 1 commercial hatchery and male or female birds were raised separately in raised wire-floor pens with common starter diet (Table 1Go) from hatch to 14 d of age. During this period, water and feed were provided ad libitum, and lighting was continuous. The temperature was kept at 33°C from 1 to 3 d of age, and then it was reduced gradually to room temperature until 14 d of age.


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  		Table 1. Composition of common starter feed from hatch to 14 d of age and experimental diets from 14 to 42 d of age (% as fed)
 
A dose-response experiment with 6 dietary energy levels (2,600, 2,700, 2,800, 2,900, 3,000, or 3,100 kcal of AME/kg) was conducted with 14-d-old White Pekin ducklings. At 14 d of age, all birds were weighed individually, and some birds with the lowest or highest weights were removed. Six hundred birds were selected on the basis of average BW and were distributed to 30 raised wire-floor pens with 10 males and 10 females per pen. According to the AME values of feed ingredients for chickens (Ministry of Agriculture of China, 2004), 6 dietary treatments were formulated to contain 2,600, 2,700, 2,800, 2,900, 3,000, or 3,100 kcal AME/kg, respectively, and each treatment contained 5 replicate pens. The ducks were raised with feed and water provided ad libitum from 14 to 42 d of age. At 42 d of age, weight gain, feed intake, and feed:gain were measured. Feed intake and feed: gain were all corrected for mortality. After feed deprivation for 12 h, 2 ducks (1 male and 1 female) were selected randomly from each pen, slaughtered, and eviscerated manually. Abdominal fat, breast meat (including pectoralis major and pectoralis minor), and leg meat (including thigh and drumstick) were removed manually from carcasses and weighed. Breast and leg meat were all skinless and boneless. All weights, including abdominal fat, breast meat, and leg meat, were expressed as a percentage relative to live BW at processing.

Data were analyzed as a completely randomized design by the 1-way ANOVA procedure of SAS software (SAS Institute, 2003). When dietary treatment was significant (P < 0.05), means were compared using Duncan’s multiple comparison procedure of SAS software (SAS Institute, 2003). In our study, broken-line regression analysis (Robbins et al., 2006) was used to estimate the AME requirement of growing ducks using the NLIN procedure of SAS software (SAS Institute, 2003), and the broken-line model was as follows


Formula

where y = weight gain or feed:gain; x = dietary energy level (kcal/kg); r = requirement of dietary energy; l = the response at x = r; and u = the steepness of the curve. In this model, y = l when x > r.


   RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
Our study showed that the live weight gain of ducks increased significantly but the feed intake and feed:gain decreased significantly as dietary energy increased from 2,600 to 3,100 kcal of AME/kg (Table 2Go). Improvement in feed conversion rate of ducks appears to be due to the decrease in feed intake caused by high dietary energy, and similar supporting results using broilers were reported (Jackson et al., 1982a; Dozier et al., 2006, 2007; Ghaffari et al., 2007). Live weight and efficiency of feed utilization of Pekin ducks could be improved by high-energy diets (Scott et al., 1959; Wilson, 1975), which was confirmed by our results. However, the previous research in duck response to dietary energy was conducted more than 30 yr ago and the data on the dietary energy level of modern strain ducks are not reported until now. When the broken-line regression analysis was used to estimate the AME requirement of growing ducks, the AME requirements of White Pekin ducks from 2 to 6 wk of age for optimal weight gain [y = 69.8 – 0.0129 x (3,008 – x), x ≤ 3,008, P < 0.05, R2 = 0.99] and feed:gain [y = 2.51 + 0.00107 x (3,030 – x), x ≤ 3,030, P < 0.05, R2 = 0.99] were 3,008 and 3,030 kcal/kg, respectively, and these requirements may be higher than the value estimated by Scott et al. (1959), in which the dietary energy level for optimal efficiency of feed utilization of 7.5-wk-old Pekin ducks was about 2,753 kcal/kg.


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  		Table 2. Effect of dietary energy on weight gain, feed intake, and feed:gain of White Pekin ducks from 14 to 42 d of age1
 
High dietary energy did not affect breast and leg meat (P > 0.05), but abdominal fat increased (P < 0.05) when dieatary AME was above 2,700 kcal/kg in our study (Table 3Go). Some researchers observed no significant effects of high-energy diets on breast meat yield of broilers (Leeson et al., 1996; Yalçin et al., 1998; Dozier et al., 2006), but increasing dietary energy could have caused deposition of excess abdominal or carcass fat in broilers (Jackson et al., 1982b; Summers et al., 1992; Leeson et al., 1996; Ghaffari et al., 2007). The use of an iso protein diet in our study may have increased ME/CP ratio of the diets, and this change may have caused excess abdominal fat in ducks, which was supported by Scott et al. (1959), who observed that the carcass fat of 7.5-wk-old Pekin ducks increased as dietary ME/CP ratio increased. Furthermore, more fat deposition caused by high-energy diets may be due to higher efficiency of energy retention at this instance, and similar results in broilers were reported by Jackson et al. (1982b) and Furuse et al. (1985). Boekholt et al. (1994) also found that the efficiency of energy retention was higher in fat than in protein when high-energy diets were consumed by broilers.


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  		Table 3. Effect of dietary energy on breast meat, leg meat, and abdominal fat of 42-d-old White Pekin ducks1
 
In conclusion, a high-energy diet could improve the feed conversion rate of growing Pekin ducks by reducing feed intake, but more abdominal fat was deposited at high energy intake. The AME requirements of White Pekin ducks from 2 to 6 wk of age for optimal weight gain and feed:gain were 3,008 and 3,030 kcal/kg, respectively, when dietary protein was 18%.


   ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
Our research was sponsored by National Scientific and Technical Supporting Program (2006BAD14B06).

Received for publication November 12, 2007. Accepted for publication February 18, 2008.


   REFERENCES
TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Boekholt, H. A., P. H. Van Der Grinten, V. V. A. M. Schreurs, M. J. N. Los, and C. P. Leffering. 1994. Effect of dietary energy restriction on retention of protein, fat and energy in broiler chicks. Br. Poult. Sci. 35:603–614.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Dozier, W. A., III, A. Corzo, M. T. Kidd, and S. L. Branton. 2007. Dietary apparent metabolizable energy and amino acid density effects on growth and carcass traits of heavy broilers. J. Appl. Poult. Res. 16:192–205.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Dozier, W. A., III, C. J. Price, M. T. Kidd, A. Corzo, J. Anderson, and S. L. Branton. 2006. Growth performance, meat yield, and economic responses of broilers fed diets varying in metabolizable energy from thirty to fifty-nine days of age. J. Appl. Poult. Res. 15:367–382.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Furuse, M., H. Yokota, and I. Tasaki. 1985. Influence of energy intake on growth and utilization of dietary protein and energy in germ-free and conventional chicks. Br. Poult. Sci. 26:389–397.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]

Ghaffari, M., M. Shivazad, M. Zaghari, and R. Taherkhani. 2007. Effects of different levels of metabolizable energy and formulation of diet based on digestible and total amino acid requirements on performance of male broiler. Int. J. Poult. Sci. 6:276–279.

Jackson, S., J. D. Summers, and S. Leeson. 1982a. Effect of dietary protein and energy on broiler performance and production costs. Poult. Sci. 61:2232–2240.[Web of Science][Medline]

Jackson, S., J. D. Summers, and S. Leeson. 1982b. Effect of dietary protein and energy on broiler carcass composition and efficiency of nutrient utilization. Poult. Sci. 61:2224–2231.[Web of Science][Medline]

Leeson, S., L. Caston, and J. D. Summers. 1996. Broiler response to dietary energy. Poult. Sci. 75:529–535.[Web of Science][Medline]

Ministry of Agriculture of China. 2004. Feeding standard of chicken. Standards Press of China, Beijing, China.

Robbins, K. R., A. M. Saxton, and L. L. Southern. 2006. Estimation of nutrient requirements using broken-line regression analysis. J. Anim. Sci. 84(E Suppl.):E155–E165.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

SAS Institute. 2003. SAS User’s Guide: Statistics. Version 9.0. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC.

Scott, M. L., F. W. Hill, E. H. Parsons, J. H. Bruckner, and E. Dougherty. 1959. Studies on duck nutrition. 7. Effect of dietary energy: Protein relationships upon growth, feed utilization and carcass composition in market ducklings. Poult. Sci. 38:497–507.[Web of Science]

Summers, J. D., D. Spratt, and J. L. Atkinson. 1992. Broiler weight gain and carcass composition when fed diets varying in amino acid balance, dietary energy and protein level. Poult. Sci. 71:263–273.[Web of Science][Medline]

Wilson, B. J. 1975. The performance of male ducklings given starter diets with different concentrations of energy and protein. Br. Poult. Sci. 16:617–625.[CrossRef][Web of Science]

Yalçin, S., S. Özkan, Z. Açikgöz, and K. Özkan. 1998. Influence of dietary energy on bird performance, carcase parts yields and nutrient composition of breast meat of heterozygous naked neck broilers reared at natural optimum and summer temperatures. Br. Poult. Sci. 39:633–638.[CrossRef][Web of Science][Medline]





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