Moist feeding in Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) nutrition: Influence on growth performance and carcass characteristics

Abstract

This study was aimed at investigating the influence of different proportion of water to dry meal, to give a moist feed form in feeding Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) and assess the influence of these different feed forms on growth performance and carcass characteristics. A completely randomized design of fifty-four one to two weeks old ducklings weighing 64 to 67 g were randomly distributed into 3 treatments with three replicates each, was used for a study period of 8 weeks. Two standard starter and grower feeds were formulated for the study. Starter diet was fed for the first 4 weeks and grower for the final 4 weeks. The treatments based on water to dry feed ratios included a control treatment (TC: Dry feed), Moist 1 Treatment (M1T : 0.5 water : 1 dry feed) and Moist 2 Treatment (M2T : 0.75 water : 1 dry feed). Data was collected on growth performance (feed intake, weight gained, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and carcass characteristics. The results showed that feed intake, weight gain and FCR were higher (P≤0.5) for M2T than M1T and TC. M1T showed higher (P≤0.5) feed intake than TC and no differences (P>0.05) for weight gain and FCR. No significant differences (P>0.05) were found with the weights of different body parts (thigh, drumstick, breast, liver, heart, small intestine, gizzards and caeca) for all the treatments. In conclusion, providing moist feeds to Muscovy ducks compared to dry feed is more beneficial for growth performance.  Key words: Muscovy ducks, moist feed, growth performance, carcass characteristics.