Productivity of germinative duck chimaeras and their descendants

Abstract

The relevance of the study is conditioned upon the necessity to explore the possible influence of chimerisation on the productivity of germinative duck chimaeras and their descendants. To obtain duck chimaeras, the method described by Aige-Gil & Simkiss and Tagirov was applied. Shanma duck embryos were used as recipients and Shaoxin duck embryos homozygous for the plumage colour gene (wild type) were used as donors. To evaluate the egg production of germinative chimaeras of ducks, the analysis of experimental animals and their control counterparts was performed. Analysis of the age of sexual maturation (laying the first egg) indicates that the chimaeras matured later. While in the control group the average age of puberty was 139±9 days, in the chimaera group it was 148±13 days. Thus, it can be concluded that in this experiment chimaeras matured later than control animals, which may be related to the effect of busulfan during the sterilisation of recipient embryos. The average live weight of ducks in the control group was lower, and the group itself was more united. Thus, in control ducks, the weight was 1422.40±57.00 g, and in chimaeras – 1608.80±94.76 g. The advantage of chimaeras over the control group in terms of live weight may be related to the fact that the control group consisted of recipients of the Shanma breed. Egg production of ducks for the entire research period was 87.5±0.05% (control) and 79.5±0.12% (busulfan). The weight of eggs in ducks of two groups for the entire period was: 70.62±0.199 g (control) and 71.15±0.157 g. Morphometric parameters of eggs of the researched groups of ducks: average values of egg length – 6.056±0.0564 cm (control) and 6.269±0.1341 cm (busulfan); egg width – 4.520± 0.0053 cm (control) and 4.529±0.004 cm (busulfan). There were no statistical intergroup differences in the morphometric parameters of the eggs of the research groups. Analysis of the productivity of daughters of germinative duck chimaeras demonstrates that, in general, the chimerisation of parents did not affect the productivity of their daughters. The analysis of the productivity of the group of daughters obtained from chimeric animals demonstrates that, by most indicators, this group occupies an intermediate place between the groups whose breeds served as donors and recipients. The method author of the research uses to obtain chimaeras is of practical value for the conservation of genetic resources