Dietary arginine from 15 to 35 days of age affects feed intake and carcass yield in White Pekin ducks

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary arginine (ARG) provided from 15 to 35 days of age on the feed intake and carcass yield of White Pekin ducks. Sixty 14-day-old White Pekin ducks were allotted to one of three dietary treatments, with 10 males and 10 females per treatment. Birds were kept individually and fed diets containing 0.60, 0.85 or 1.70% ARG for 3 weeks. Ducks that were fed the diet containing 1.70% ARG had greater bodyweight gain (P < 0.05), higher feed intake (P < 0.05), and a lower feed conversion ratio (P < 0.05) than those fed the diet containing 0.60% ARG. The hypothalamic contents of neuropeptide Y and leptin at 35 days of age were not affected by dietary ARG levels. Breast muscle yield increased with each increment of dietary ARG content (P < 0.05), and birds fed the diet containing 1.70% ARG had highest leg muscle yield (P < 0.05) and total muscle yield (P < 0.05); in contrast, the abdominal fat yield was not affected (P > 0.05) by dietary ARG. No interaction between dietary ARG level and sex was observed for the above mentioned indices (P > 0.05). In conclusion, dietary ARG supplementation promoted appetite without changing the concentrations of neuropeptide Y or leptin in hypothalamus, and ARG supplementation stimulated muscle growth, especially breast muscle growth, in growing White Pekin ducks of both sexes.