Mule Ducks Research Articles

The fasting refeeding challenge: a new model for the study of hepatic metabolism in mule duck

The fasting refeeding challenge: a new model for the study of hepatic metabolism in mule duck

Could air sampling be a substitute for individual oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs on live animals to detect avian influenza virus in Mule ducks?

Could air sampling be a substitute for individual oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs on live animals to detect avian influenza virus in Mule ducks?

Nutritional programming of hepatic metabolism in mule duck: zootechnical data

Nutritional programming of hepatic metabolism in mule duck: zootechnical data

Nutritional programming of hepatic metabolism in mule ducks: a transcript study

Nutritional programming of hepatic metabolism in mule ducks: a transcript study

Development and validation of a method to assess welfare of mule duck in farm during the breeding period

Development and validation of a method to assess welfare of mule duck in farm during the breeding period

Effects of meal frequency on performances, appearance and behaviour of mule ducks housed in confinement

Effects of meal frequency on performances, appearance and behaviour of mule ducks housed in confinement

Molecular Identification and Pathogenicity of Novel Duck-Origin Goose Parvovirus Isolated from Beak Atrophy and Dwarfism Syndrome of Waterfowls in the North of Vietnam.

The aim of this study is to identify and characterize virus isolates (which are named for Bacgiang Agriculture and Forestry University [BAFU]) from diseased Cherry Valley duck and mule duck flocks and investigate the damage caused by a novel parvovirus-related virus (DuPV) to tissues and organs, including the brain, cerebellum, kidney, liver, lung, spleen, and spinal cord. The results of phylogenetic analysis show that DuPV-BAFU evolved from a goose lineage and duck parvoviruses rather than from Muscovy duck parvoviruses. In the genetic lineages, DuPVs were identified from the DuPV samples analyzed, and DuPV-BAFU was found to be closely clustered with two known goose origin parvoviruses (GPVa2006 and GPV1995) and a duck GPVs. Finally, structural modeling revealed that DuPV-BAFU and the closely related viruses GPVa2006 and GPV1995 possessed identical clusters of receptor-interacting amino acid residues in the VP3 protein, a major determinant of viral receptor binding and host specificity. Significantly, these three viruses differed from DuPVs, Muscovy duck parvoviruses, and other goose parvoviruses at these positions. These results also demonstrated that DuPV-BAFU represents a new variant of goose-origin parvovirus that currently circulates in ducklings and causes beak atrophy and dwarfism syndrome, as noted in the previous reports in Europe, Taiwan, and China. This new finding highlights the need for future surveillance of DuPV-BAFU in waterfowl in order to gain a better understanding of both the evolution and the biology of this emerging parvovirus in waterfowl.

HODOWLA ZWIERZ ˛AT GOSPODARSKICH Z ZASOBÓW GENETYCZNYCH DLA MŁODYCH ROLNIKÓW NA TAJWANIE

The agricultural employed population of the year 2020 in Taiwan were 548,000 persons with 74.1% male and 24.9% female. Only 10.9% of those were young farmers with age of 15 to 34 years old. According to the survey of animal industry in 2020, there were about 10,300 livestock farms and 9,900 poultry farms in Taiwan. For those of producing milk, meat and egg in different sectors, the average annual incomes per farm is more than 20 million Taiwan dollar in dairy cattle farms and broiler chicken farms with number of rearing animals per farm were 210 cows and 27,618 birds, respectively. Farm animal genetic resources of 117 breeds in Taiwan updated to 2021, including 20 native breeds, 43 imported breeds, 39 registered new breeds, and 15 ongoing selection breeds, serve as a gene bank for the study of genetic diversity. In Taiwan experience, mule duck production with two species crossbreeding via artificial insemination of laying duck sired with mixed semen from Muscovy duck, it is an essential application of multiple-sires instrumental breeding. In free range production, females of native chicken and laying duck can be multiple-sire natural mating to ensure a higher fertility rate of ovulated eggs. Application of frozen semen and embryo may perform sire-daughter mating, brother-sister mating, or son-dam mating for increasing genetic homogeneity without inbreeding depression of reproduction performance. Inbreeding quickly brings to the surface any detrimental genes that are in a population. With the facility of paternal DNA test, single-sire breeding can be used with extended semen and intra-uterine insemination to test the allele effect of sire genome on their economic traits of pig, cattle, goat, and poultry breeds in a small-scale farming system. Advanced breeding efforts are undertaken to broaden the genetic base of conserved animals and create new breeds that meet the manifold demands in relation to quality, resilience, and sustainability in small-scale farms.

Early Phenotype Programming in Birds by Temperature and Nutrition: A Mini-Review

Early development is a critical period during which environmental influences can have a significant impact on the health, welfare, robustness and performance of livestock. In oviparous vertebrates, such as birds, embryonic development takes place entirely in the egg. This allows the effects of environmental cues to be studied directly on the developing embryo. Interestingly, beneficial effects have been identified in several studies, leading to innovative procedures to improve the phenotype of the animals in the long term. In this review, we discuss the effects of early temperature and dietary programming strategies that both show promising results, as well as their potential transgenerational effects. The timing, duration and intensity of these procedures are critical to ensure that they produce beneficial effects without affecting animal survival or final product quality. For example, cyclic increases in egg incubation temperature have been shown to improve temperature tolerance and promote muscular growth in chickens or fatty liver production in mule ducks. In ovo feeding has also been successfully used to enhance digestive tract maturation, optimize chick development and growth, and thus obtain higher quality chicks. In addition, changes in the nutritional availability of methyl donors, for example, was shown to influence offspring phenotype. The molecular mechanisms behind early phenotype programming are still under investigation and are probably epigenetic in nature as shown by recent work in chickens.

Identification of different critical embryonic periods to modify egg incubation temperature in mule ducks

Egg incubation of mule ducks, mainly used for fatty liver production, is one of the critical phases in this sector. Based on hatching rate, the best incubation parameters have already been well described for poultry, but the literature on ducks is lacking. In this study, we tested different incubation conditions by varying two important factors, temperature and relative humidity, in mule ducks. These variations were applied at different periods during embryogenesis in order to measure the impact of environmental disturbances on different zootechnical performances. The temperature was increased by 1.5 °C (16 h/24) and the relative humidity was set up to 65%, during 10 days. Six 10-day developmental windows were tested, from embryonic day 9 to embryonic day 14. Our results are in line with previous reports showing that increasing incubation temperature, even when relative humidity is adjusted, can have a negative impact on duck embryonic mortality up to 24.5% for the condition E10-E20 (P < 10−5). However, the hatchability can be maintained at the level of the control groups when these modifications are applied on the latest windows (from the 11th embryonic day). Sex ratio, hatching BW, and internal temperature are also sensitive to these incubation changes, and their modification could have a major impact on later zootechnical performance. These results should contribute to the development or embryonic temperature programming approaches, especially for the fatty liver production industry.

Impacts of Embryonic Thermal Programming on the Expression of Genes Involved in Foie gras Production in Mule Ducks.

Embryonic thermal programming has been shown to improve foie gras production in overfed mule ducks. However, the mechanisms at the origin of this programming have not yet been characterized. In this study, we investigated the effect of embryonic thermal manipulation (+1°C, 16 h/24 h from embryonic (E) day 13 to E27) on the hepatic expression of genes involved in lipid and carbohydrate metabolisms, stress, cell proliferation and thyroid hormone pathways at the end of thermal manipulation and before and after overfeeding (OF) in mule ducks. Gene expression analyses were performed by classic or high throughput real-time qPCR. First, we confirmed well-known results with strong impact of OF on the expression of genes involved in lipid and carbohydrates metabolisms. Then we observed an impact of OF on the hepatic expression of genes involved in the thyroid pathway, stress and cell proliferation. Only a small number of genes showed modulation of expression related to thermal programming at the time of OF, and only one was also impacted at the end of the thermal manipulation. For the first time, we explored the molecular mechanisms of embryonic thermal programming from the end of heat treatment to the programmed adult phenotype with optimized liver metabolism.

Application of Metabolomics to Identify Hepatic Biomarkers of Foie Gras Qualities in Duck.

Foie gras is a traditional dish in France that contains 50 to 60% of lipids. The high-fat content of the liver improves the organoleptic qualities of foie gras and reduces its technological yield at cooking (TY). As the valorization of the liver as foie gras products is strongly influenced by the TY, classifying the foie gras in their potential technological quality before cooking them is the main challenge for producers. Therefore, the current study aimed to identify hepatic biomarkers of foie gras qualities like liver weight (LW) and TY. A group of 120 male mule ducks was reared and overfed for 6–12 days, and their livers were sampled and analyzed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR). Eighteen biomarkers of foie gras qualities were identified, nine for LW and TY, five specific to LW, and four specific to TY. All biomarkers were strongly negatively correlated to the liver weights and positively correlated to the technological yield, except for the lactate and the threonine, and also for the creatine that was negatively correlated to foie gras technological quality. As a result, in heavy livers, the liver metabolism was oriented through a reduction of carbohydrate and amino acid metabolisms, and the plasma membrane could be damaged, which may explain the low technological yield of these livers. The detected biomarkers have been strongly discussed with the metabolism of the liver in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

The Response of Mule Ducks and Economic Implications when Fed at Different Times of Post Hatch

The Response of Mule Ducks and Economic Implications when Fed at Different Times of Post Hatch

Reproduction and growth characteristics of ducks and local white Muscovy in Indonesia

Currently at IRIAP, MASTER ducks have been produced as stock superior laying ducks. Efforts to maintain consistency its egg production, both of the parent stock of MASTER duck namely the Alabimaster-1 Agrinak and Mojomaster-1 Agrinak ducks have been selected based on egg production. In addition, PMp ducks have been produced as broiler ducks that can be mated with Muscovy to produce mule ducks. The productivity related to the growth and eggs production in those ducks has been widely disclosed, however, information on their reproductive characteristics was still very limited. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the reproductive characteristics of ducks and white Muscovy that were being developed in IRIAP. The materials in this study were 515 birds consisted of Alabimaster-1, Mojomaster-1, PMp and white Muscovy that were in the layer phase. The variables observed were reproductive characteristics and the growth of ducks in the starter period. The results showed that the fertility obtained was relatively high namely ranging 93% in layer ducks, 85% in PMp ducks and 76% in Muscovy. The hatchability rate of layer ducks was included in the medium category with values ranging 63%. Meanwhile, the hatchability of PMp duck and Muscovy was in the low category, namely 50% and 14% respectively. Embryonic mortality in ducks was relatively moderate, namely 35–37%, while in Muscovy was relatively very high, i.e around 93%. The growth of ducks and Muscovy in starter periode were normal stage.

Prebiotics reduce feather pecking behavior, and improve trace element profile and redox balance in Mule ducks

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prebiotic effects of mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) and β-glucan (BG) combination (MOS-BG prebiotics) on feather pecking behavior, some physiological aspects and brain histology in Mule ducks. A total of 48 Mule ducks (15 days of age) were assigned to 3 treatments; 4 control (C) groups of ducks fed a basal diet only, 4 low-dose AGRIMOSⓇ (LA) (1.5 g/kg diet) groups, and 4 high-dose AGRIMOSⓇ (HA) (3 g/kg diet) groups. The experiment lasted for 6 weeks. Feather pecking behavior was recorded by direct observation for altogether 1 hour/pen/week. Blood samples and brain tissues were collected from 2 ducks per pen (8 ducks per treatment group) at the end of the experiment. Feather pecking frequency and feather scores of the wings, back, and vent regions were significantly lower in HA compared to C groups, but higher in LA groups. Dopamine levels were highest in LA groups, followed by C and HA groups, and serotonin levels showed an opposite outcome pattern. Iron levels were highest in LA groups and vitamin C levels highest in HA groups. A dose-dependent increase in both magnesium level and superoxide dismutase activity was observed in LA and HA groups. Both LA and HA groups showed similarly increased zinc, copper and vitamin E levels, glutathione peroxidase activity and total antioxidant capacity as well as decreased total peroxide levels and oxidative stress indices were found. This, points to a possible welfare enhancing effect of MOS-BG prebiotics in ducks. However, no clear association between feather pecking behavior and antioxidant capacity was apparent. Additionally, the extent of feather pecking behavior was not reflected by any histological or cytological changes in the brain tissues or neurons, respectively. Considering the low sample size and the unexplainable result of more feather pecking when fed with low doses of prebiotics further investigations are needed. However, the study indicates that utilization of MOS-BG prebiotics at the high dose may attenuate feather pecking behavior and enhance the oxidative stability and trace element reserve.

Viral tropism and detection of clade 2.3.4.4b H5N8 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses in feathers of ducks and geese

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza viruses (HPAIVs) display a tissue pantropism, which implies a possible spread in feathers. HPAIV detection from feathers had been evaluated for H5N1 or H7N1 HPAIVs. It was suggested that viral RNA loads could be equivalent or higher in samples of immature feather compared to tracheal (TS) or cloacal swabs (CS). We investigated the suitability of feathers for the detection of clade 2.3.4.4b H5N8 HPAIV in ducks and geese field samples. In the six H5N8 positive flocks that were included in this study, TS, CS and immature wing feathers were taken from at least 10 birds. Molecular loads were then estimated using real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) targetting H5 and M genes. In all flocks, viral loads were at least equivalent between feather and swab samples and in most cases up to 103 higher in feathers. Bayesian modelling confirmed that, in infected poultry, RT-qPCR was much more likely to be positive when applied on a feather sample only (estimated sensitivity between 0.89 and 0.96 depending on the positivity threshold) than on a combination of a tracheal and a cloacal swab (estimated sensitivity between 0.45 and 0.68 depending on the positivity threshold). Viral tropism and lesions in feathers were evaluated by histopathology and immunohistochemistry. Epithelial necrosis of immature feathers and follicles was observed concurrently with positive viral antigen detection and leukocytic infiltration of pulp. Accurate detection of clade 2.3.4.4b HPAIVs in feather samples were finally confirmed with experimental H5N8 infection on 10-week-old mule ducks, as viral loads at 3, 5 and 7 days post-infection were higher in feathers than in tracheal or cloacal swabs. However, feather samples were associated with lower viral loads than tracheal swabs at day 1, suggesting better detectability of the virus in feathers in the later course of infection. These results, based on both field cases and experimental infections, suggest that feather samples should be included in the toolbox of samples for detection of clade 2.3.4.4b HPAI viruses, at least in ducks and geese.

Nocturnal One-Hour Lighting Stimulates Gonadal Development and Lowers Fat Deposition in Male Mule Ducks.

Simple SummaryPhotoperiods can affect sexual maturity, body weight, and body composition. In this work, we provided male mule ducks with a one-hour lighting from 20:00 to 21:00, in addition to the natural photoperiod, and evaluated its effects on their body weight, organ mass, gonadal function, and plasma levels of metabolites. The results indicate that the nocturnal lighting stimulated gonadal development and function and reduced fat deposition. This implies that nocturnal lighting is able to shorten the feeding period for the marketing of mature ducks. In this study, the effects of a nocturnal light pulse on body weight, organ mass, gonadal function, and plasma levels of metabolites were determined in male mule ducks. In total, 32 15-week-old mule ducks were randomly allocated to either Group C (control group) or L+ (lighting group). Group C was exposed to the natural photoperiod, whereas Group L+ was provided with a 1-h lighting over 20:00–21:00 every day, in addition to the natural photoperiod. At the end of the 42-day experiment, Group L+ had significantly lower relative weights (% of live weight) of the digestive tract and abdominal fat and higher relative weights of the breast meat and testes than Group C. Moreover, Group L+ had significantly higher plasma testosterone and lower plasma glucose levels. However, no between-group differences were observed in the triacylglycerol and uric acid levels. Histological examination demonstrated that the seminiferous tubule diameter was larger in Group L+ than in Group C. Moreover, the meiosis stage in spermatogenesis had begun in Group L+ but not in Group C. In conclusion, the supplemented 1-h lighting at 20:00 stimulated gonadal development and function and reduced fat deposition.

Identification of Plasmatic Biomarkers of Foie Gras Qualities in Duck by Metabolomics.

The foie gras is an emblematic product of French gastronomy composed of waterfowl fatty liver. The organoleptic qualities of this product depend on the liver characteristics such as liver weight (LW) and technological yield (TY) at cooking. One of the main issues for producers is to classify the foie gras with high or low technological quality before cooking them. Thus the study aims at identifying biomarkers of these characteristics with non-invasive biomarkers in duck. 1H-NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance of the proton) analyses were performed on plasma of male mule ducks at different time points during the overfeeding period to obtain a large range of liver characteristics so as to identify plasmatic biomarkers of foie gras. We used two methods, one based on bucket data from the 1H-NMR spectra and another one based on the fingerprints of several metabolites. PLS analyses and Linear models were performed to identify biomarkers. We identified 18 biomarkers of liver weight and 15 biomarkers of technological yield. As these two quality parameters were strongly correlated (−0.82), 13 biomarkers were common. The lactate was the most important biomarker, the other were mainly amino acids. Contrary to the amino acids, the lactate increased with the liver weight and decreased with the technological yield. We also identified 5 biomarkers specific to LW (3 carbohydrates: glucuronic acid, mannose, sorbitol and 2 amino acids: glutamic acid and methionine) that were negatively correlated to liver weight. It was of main interest to identify 2 biomarkers specific to the technological yield. Contrary to the isovaleric acid, the valine was negatively correlated to the technological yield.

DMRT1 Expression is Positively Correlated with the Development of Testes in Adult Mule Duck

DMRT1 Expression is Positively Correlated with the Development of Testes in Adult Mule Duck

The Effect of Early Post Hatch Feeding Times on the Growth and Development of the Gastrointestinal Tract of Mule Ducklings to Five Days of Age

ABSTRACT The present study evaluated the effects of early post-hatch feeding on the growth and development of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of mule ducks reared in the humid tropics to five days of age. A total of 120 newly hatched mule ducklings were selected and randomly assigned to four treatment groups. Each with 30 birds, (T1, T2, T3, and T4) is based on four feeding regimes (feed accessed at 3, 24, 36, and 48 hours post-hatch) for five days. The ducklings were euthanized each day and the parameters: small intestinal samples were processed for histological analysis and histometrical parameters including villi length and width, crypt width and depth, and the number of goblet cells per villus was measured, statistically analyzed using ANOVA and tabulated. The results of this study indicated that the earliest post-hatch feeding (at 3 hours post-hatch) showed the highest body weight (99.65 g), heavier (GIT) organ (p 0.05) continuously regardless of the post-hatch feeding times. Based on the results, it was concluded that feeding at 3 hours post-hatch promoted the growth and development of the GIT faster than 24, 36, and 38 hours post hatch feeding.