Abstract
Global warming affected increasing the risk of ducks to be more succeptable to heat stress which leads to decrease welfare and production. This research aimed to study duck welfare and productivity under probiotic and antioxidants administration at commercial farms. The method used was experiment with Completely Randomized Designed (CRD) based on factorial pattern. The treatment was dose of natural/homemade and commercial probiotics combined with vitamin C at 400 mg kg–1 and 600 mg kg–1 feed. Thus there were four treatment combinations. Each treatment was replicated five times, totally were 20 flocks of duck. Each flock had 50 laying females so there were 1 000 ducks. The treatment was conduced for 2 mo. The parameters observed included, i) duck welfare based on Heterophyl/Lymphocyte (H/L) ratio; ii) egg production consisted of (a) duck day production, and (b) egg weight. This study concluded that administration of combination between homemade probiotic and vitamin C at 600 mg kg–1 feed significantly (p < 0.05) increased duck welfare and egg production but did not affect egg weight.
Highlights
High ambient temperature is a serious obstacle in developing poultry production in tropical areas, especially in recent climate change phenomenon
Indonesian National Aviation and Space Agency reported that the climate in Indonesia has become warmer during the 20th century with an average annual temperature has increased by about 0.3 °C since 1900 [1]
This study was conducted to examine the effect of probiotic and vitamin C combination on welfare and egg production of local ducks kept in commercial farms
Summary
High ambient temperature is a serious obstacle in developing poultry production in tropical areas, especially in recent climate change phenomenon. Previous study reported that under dry intensive system, local ducks suffered from heat stress as indicated by rectal temperature, behaviour, and body and plumage. Several studies have been conducted to investigate the use of probiotic and vitamins for alleviation of heat stress in poultry. Probiotic Lactobacillus strains have proven to be able to restore the microbial balance and maintaine the natural stability of indigeneous bacterial microbiota following heat stress–induced changes [4]. It has been proven that vitamin C (ascorbic acid) – an important antioxidant synthesised in chickens and its dietary supplementation is shown to be effective in stress conditions, when its requirement substantially increased. Study on effect of probiotic and vitamin combination on duck welfare is lacking, especially that under commercial farm management. This study was conducted to examine the effect of probiotic and vitamin C combination on welfare and egg production of local ducks kept in commercial farms
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