Effects Of Different Light Factors On Production Performance,Carcass Performance,Meat Quality And Anti-oxidant Capacity Of Peking Ducks

This research was conducted to investigate the effects of different light intensities, different light regimes and diffierent wavelengths on production performance, carcass performance, meat quality and anti-oxidant capacity of Peking Ducks.Trial 1: This trial was conducted to investigate the effects of light intensity on production performance, carcass performance, meat quality and anti-oxidant capacity of Peking Ducks. Six hundred 1-day-old Peking Ducks were randomly distributed into 5 treatments, each treatment included 4 replicate groups with 30 ducks per group(half were male). All ducks were exposed to 5 different light intensity treatment(1, 15, 10, 15 and 40 lx) by incandescent lamp 24 h light, from 1-day-old to 42-day-old age. The results showed as follows: For the whole growth stage(1~6 w), light had no significant effect on average feed intake(AFI) and body weight gain(BWG)(P<0.05), but feed intake: body weight gain(F/B) of 5 lx group was extremely higher than that of 40 lx group(P>0.05). During fattening period(6 w), the AFI and BWG of 1 lx group were much higher than that of 5, 10, 15 lx groups(P<0.05). However, there were no significant effects during the brooding(1~2 w) and growth period(3~5 w)(P>0.05). Light intensity had no significant effect on most carcass traits(P>0.05), including dressing percentage, eviscerated percentage, thigh meat percentage and abdominal fat percentage. The 5 lx light intensity had an increase trend in carcass performance, especially in breast muscle percentage, higher than 40 lx group(P<0.05). There were no differences in pHu, drip loss(DL) and b* among different light intensity groups(P>0.05). The pHi of 40 lx group were significantly higher than that of 5, 10, 15 lx groups(P<0.05), while L* were lower than that of 5, 10, 15 lx groups(P<0.05). The a* of 15, 40 lx groups were much lower than that of 1 lx(P<0.05). There were no obvious difference in the levels of Mel among different light intensity groups(P>0.05). The level of MDA of 5 lx group was much higher than that of other groups. Compared with other groups, the activity of GSH-Px increased significantly in 40 lx group. Considering the previous results, the 5 lx light intensity can improve feed conversion rate, and have an increase trend in carcass performance. In addition, low intensity light benefit to improve L* and a* of meat quality, but make against anti-oxidant capacity of Peking Ducks.Trial 2: This trial was conducted to investigate the effects of light regimes on production performance, carcass performance, meat quality and anti-oxidant capacity of Peking Ducks. Three hundred and twenty 1-day-old Peking Ducks were randomly distributed into 5 treatments, each treatment included 4 replicate groups with 30 ducks per group(half were male). All ducks were exposed to 5 different light regimes treatments: Intermittent Light(INT L), Increasing Light(INC L), Short-time Light(ST L), Decreasing Light(DEC L), Continuous Light(CON L). The results showed as follows: For the whole growth stage(1~6 w), light regimes had no significant effect on average feed intake(AFI), body weight gain(BWG) and feed intake: body weight gain(F/B)(P<0.05). During brooding period(1~2 w), the AFI and BWG of ST L groups were significantly lower than INT L, DEC L and CON L groups. The AFI of INC L group was much lower than INT L and DEC L groups, while the F/B was higher than other groups significantly. There were no significant effects during the growth(3~5 w) and fattening period(1~2 w)(P>0.05). Light regimes had no significant effect on most carcass traits(P>0.05), including dressing percentage, breast muscle percentage, thigh meat percentage and abdominal fat percentage. However the eviscerated percentage of CON L groups was significantly lower than other groups. There were no differences in pHi, drip loss(DL), L* and b* among different light intensity groups(P>0.05). But the pHu of ST L group was significantly lower than DEC L and CON L groups. The a* of DEC L group is much lower than INT L and INC L groups. There were no obvious difference in the levels of Mel, MDA and GSH-Px. But the activity of T-SOD of ST L group was much lower than INT L, DEC L and CON L groups, besides that of INC L group was lower than DEC L group. Considering the previous results, short-time light makes against FI and BWG, but has no effect on final weight. And 24 h continuous Light can decrease the eviscerated percentage. Although short-time light can save electric resource, it adverse to meat quality and anti-oxidant capacity.Trial 3: This trial was conducted to investigate the effects of light wavelengths on production performance, carcass performance and anti-oxidant capacity of Peking Ducks. Three hundred and twenty 1-day-old Peking Ducks were randomly distributed into 5 treatments, each treatment included 4 replicate groups with 30 ducks per group(half were male). All ducks were exposed to 5 different light regimes treatments: blue light; white light; red light; green light and incandescent light. The results showed as follows: For the fattening period(1~2 w), growth(3~5 w), fattening period(6 w) and the whole growth stage(1~6 w) of Peking Ducks, light wavelengths had no significant effect on average feed intake(AFI), body weight gain(BWG) and feed intake: body weight gain(F/B)(P<0.05), except the BWG of red groups in 6 w was lower than others(P>0.05). Light wavelengths had no significant effect on most carcass traits(P>0.05), including dressing percentage, eviscerated percentage, breast muscle percentage and thigh meat percentage. However, the abdominal fat percentage of blue light was lower than other groups significantly(P<0.05). There were little effects of light wavelengths on meat qulity, including pHi, pHu, drip loss(DL), L*, a* and b*. There were no obvious difference in the levels of Mel and GSH-Px among different light wavelengths groups(P>0.05). But the level of MDA of white light was much higher than other groups. Besiders the level of MDA of blue and incandescent light groups were much higher than red and green light groups(P<0.05). But the activity of T-SOD of green light group was lower than others insignificantly(P<0.05). Considering the previous results, light wavelengths have little effect on production performance, carcass performance and meat quality, but blue light can reduce the abdominal fat of Peking Ducks. And white and green light have no averandage on anti-oxidant capacity, because white light improve the level of MDA, green light decline the activity of T-SOD as well.