Abstract
Six experiments were conducted in two southern coastal districts of Bangladesh (Noakhali and Lakshmipur) to identify the existing duck production system and to recommend an economic viable feeding system for ducks in different seasons. To know the socio-economic condition of the duck rearers and existing feeding and management system and problems faced in rearing ducks, information was collected from 300 duck farmers of coastal areas by direct interview method. The majority of the farmers (39%) belonged to middle-aged and their socio-economic profiles were very poor. Thirty percent farmers have primary education. About 50% of the respondents had large family size having seven persons per family. About 45% of the farmers had small land with an average of 0.41 ha per household. Sixty one percent of the farmers had agriculture as a main occupation. The majority of the farmers (82.25%) involved in rearing desi ducks followed by crossbred (12%) and hybrid (5.75%). About 39% farmers reared ducks under scavenging with only natural feed resources. The majority of the farmers (84.5%) did not use vaccine against duck diseases. Maximum number ducks are reared in monsoon and minimum in summer. Lack of day old duckling, high price of feed, shortage of vaccine and medicine were the constraints. All farmers expressed their interest to rear more ducks if they get loan with minimum interest. An inventory was conducted in Noakhali and Lakshmipur districts with the objectives of evaluating the seasonal availability of scavengable feed in different seasons and their nutritional status. In addition to conventional feed a lot of non-conventional and aquatic feeds identified are insects, earthworms, snail, oyster, water hyacinth, azolla, duck weed, ipil ipil leaf, sesbania leaf, potato peelings etc. Collected feeds were analyzed for proximate constituents, Ca and P content. There were considerable differences in nutrient content among the scavengable feed resources of different origin and season. The CP content of feed ingredients ranged between 6.5 and 59.0%, CF 0.6 to 23%, Ca 0.05 to 19.5% and P 0.03 to 2.30%. In order to study the effect of feed supplementation on growth, meat yield, meat quality and carcass characteristics an experiment was conducted with Muscovy, Pekin and Desi White ducklings for a period of 98 days at farmers house in 3 villages of Noakhali district under scavenging. A factorial experiment (2 × 3) was designed for 2 feeding regimes (control and supplemented) and 3 breeds of duck. The feed supplements consisting of a mixture of rice polish, broken rice and wheat bran@ 50, 30 and 20%, respectively. Live weight gain and feed conversion were highest in Muscovy and lowest in Desi White duck and the differences among the genotypes were significant (P<0.01) for live weight and live weight gain but survivability did not differ significantly among the genotypes (P>0.05). The Muscovy has highest dressing yield (66.74%) followed by Pekin (66.33%) and Desi White duck (65.67%). The profit margin (Tk. 68.31 vs 16.96) and cost-benefit ratio (2.38 vs 1.38) were highest in Muscovy and lowest in Desi White ducklings. Muscovy ducklings with the supplementation of 10g concentrate daily during the first week and with an increase of 10g in each subsequent week until 6th week of age was proved as economically profitable genotypes of meat producing scavenging bird to the farmers in coastal areas of Bangladesh. To recommend an egg type breed a feeding trial was conducted with 150 two-month old Jinding ducklings to investigate the growth performance, productivity, egg quality and chemical composition of egg with or without extra feed to scavenging system of rearing. The experiment was conducted following completely randomized design with 5 dietary treatments having 3 replications in each group with 10 ducklings in each replication during growing phase and 8 ducklings for laying phase. The dietary treatments were: To (only scavenging), T, (scavenging +SR), T2 (scavenging + RP), T3 (scavenging + BR), T4 (scavenging + RP + BR, 1:1) and T, (scavenging + RP + BR + WB, 5:3:2). The live weight of the birds at 5 and 12 months of age differed among treatments. The live weight at first egg production and physical characteristics of eggs were found better in T, followed by T3, T4, T5, T2 and To, respectively. The CP content of egg albumen and egg yolk differed at 50% level of egg production. Supplementation of standard ration and broken rice in addition to scavenging was found economically viable. To determine the amount of supplementation for layer Jinding ducks, an experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design having 3 replications in each group with 8 ducks in each replication with 6 dietary treatments. The dietary treatments were: T, (60g SR), T2 (70g SR), T3 (80g SR), T4 (60g BR), Ts (70g BR) and T6 (80g BR). The live weight of birds at 12 months of age differed among the treatment groups. The live weight at first egg production was found highest in T3 group followed by T6, T2, Ts, T, and T4 groups, respectively. The egg weight (g) and duck- day egg production (%) were found highest in T3 (67.25 and 57.95) followed by T6 (66.78 and 54.05), T2 (65.25 and 52.07), Ts (65.0 and 45.65), T1 (64.5 and 43.8) and T4 (64.0 and 38.65), respectively. The best FCR was found in T3 (4.10) followed by T2 (4.14), T, (4.20), T6 (4.43), Ts (4.74) and T4 (4.85). The highest net profit comes from the supplementation of 80g broken rice per duck per day in addition to scavenging. Further a feeding trial was conducted with Jinding ducks to determine the optimum amount of broken rice supplementation necessary in different seasons of the year. The experimental treatments were: T, (50g BR), T2 (65g BR), T3 (80g BR), T4 (95g BR) and T, (110g BR). Season had a significant effect (P<0.01) on live weight and egg production. The duck-day egg production among treatments ranged from 33.88 to 66.96% in rainy season, 30.19 to 65.63% in winter season and 24.75 to 61.96% in summer season. The highest net profit was found in ducks belonging to T3, T2 and T4 in winter, monsoon and summer season, respectively. It may be suggested to rear Jinding layer ducks supplementing with broken rice at the rate of 80g/duck/day in winter season, 65g in monsoon season and 95g in summer season during first year of laying under scavenging.