Evaluation of optimal lysine requirement ratio of white pekin duck from hatch to 21 days of age

The current study was conducted to investigate the optimal lysine requirement of white pekin duck from hatch to 21 days of age by comparing growth performance and carcass trait of birds. A total of 192 one-day-old white pekin duck were obtained from a hatchery and allocated into a completely randomized design with six replicate per treatment of four dietary ingredient (eight birds per each cage). The birds fed a different lysine ratio (i.e., 0.72%, 0.80%, 0.88%, 0.96%, 1.04%, 1.12%) of commercial starter diet (ME: 2,900 kcal/kg, CP: 200 g/kg) formulated according to the NRC (1994) duck nutrient specification with fresh water on an ad libitum basis from day 1 to 21 of post-hatch. The growth performance of ducks was measured weekly and at the end of the experiment day 21, all birds were euthanized using CO2 asphyxiation to collect the meat sample of ducks. The birds fed a diet contained high lysine over 0.96% showed higher body weight compare to the ducks fed a diet with low ratio of lysine. Similarly, the average daily gain of duck has improved according to the increase of lysine ratio in diet. Thus the feed conversion ratio of birds was improved as the ratio of lysine increase until the 0.96% of lysine in diet. In conclusion, this study showed that the most appropriate 0.96% of lysine diet could improve the growth performance of white pekin duck from hatch to the 21 days of age.

Keywords: carcass trait, feed ingredient, growth performance, lysine, white pekin duck.

Published in the Proceedings of 2021 Annual Congress of KSAST (Korean Society of Animal Science and Technology).