Effects Of Dietary Cottonseed Meal Level On Growth Performance And Serum Parameters In Meat Ducks Fed Different Maternal Vitamin Content

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of dietary cottonseed meal (CSM) level on growth performance, blood biochemical profile of meat ducks fed different maternal vitamins (OVN and LOW) content. A total of 900 one-d-old cherry valley ducks were randomly divided into 20 experimental treatments with 2×2×5 factorial design. First two means maternal OVN and LOW vitamins content. Second two means male or female. The 5 experimental diets were formulated in such a way that 0%(a corn-soybean meal basal diet),25%,50%,75%, and 100% of protein from soybean meal were replaced with that from CSM. All diets were formulated on a digestible amino acid basis. The experiment included 2 phases, the starter phase (1 to 3 wk) where the test diets contained graded levels of cottonseed meal and the growth phase (4 to 5 wk) where birds were fed a corn-soybean basal diet to examine the recovery of ducks after cottonseed meal withdrawal.The results showed that:(1) During 1 to 21 d of age, average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed to gain ratio (F/G) of ducks fed maternal OVN was decreased (P<0.05) compared with ducks fed maternal LOW, while average daily gain (ADG) and ADFI of male ducks was higher than that of female ducks (P<,0.05). Compared with 100% CSM group, ADG and feed efficiency of duck fed 25%,50% and 75% CSM diet significantly increased(P<0.05). The interaction between maternal vitamin, gender and CSM was significant on ADFI (P<0.05). Additionally, F/G of ducks fed 100% CSM diet significantly increased during 22-35d.(2) At 35d, maternal OVN significantly increased (P<0.05) abdominal fat percentage. Breast muscle yield of female ducks was higher than that of male ducks (P<0.01); Eviscreated yield of ducks fed 50% CSM diet was higher than that of other groups, while abdominal fat percentage decreased compared with other groups (P<0.01). The interaction between CSM and gender was significant on abdominal fat percentage (P<0.05). Liver index significantly increased when ducks fed 75% or 100% CSM diets at 14d of age (P<0.05).(3) At 35d of age, maternal OVN significantly increased (P<0.05) serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST) of ducks. The content of serum cystatin (CRE) at 14d of age and albumin (ALB) at 21d of age of male ducks were higher than those of female ducks(P<0.05). Serum CRE content at 14d of age and ALB level at 21 d of age decreased when ducks fed 50%,75% and 100% CSM diet.The results suggested that maternal vitamin had some effect on growth performance, blood biochemistry and slaughter performances. Male ducks had a better growth performance and poorer tolerance for CSM compared with female ducks.100% CSM impaired the growth performance, disturbed blood biochemical indexes.