title: Effect of dietary methionine content on growth performance, carcass traits, and feather growth of Pekin duck from 15 to 35 days of age.
abstract: A study was conducted to establish the response of Pekin ducks to dietary Met from 15 to 35 d age. Experimental diets were formulated to contain 0.35, 0.45, 0.55, 0.65, and 0.75% Met (0.30, 0.39, 0.45, 0.56, and 0.68% on an analyzed basis, respectively) and 0.3% cysteine (0.25, 0.27, 0.26, 0.26, and 0.28% on an analyzed basis, respectively). Each diet was fed to 10 pens of 55 ducks/pen. Carcass yields and feather growth were determined at 28 and 35 d. Results showed that feeding 0.30% Met (0.55% Met+Cys) significantly impaired ADG, feed-to-gain (F:G) ratio, breast meat yield, and feather growth in comparison to the other dietary treatments (P < 0.05).
  G, carcass and breast meat weight and yield, breast skin and subcutaneous fat weight and yield, the fourth primary wing feather length, and feather coverage showed significant quadratic broken-line or quadratic polynomial response to increasing dietary Met (P < 0.05). From 15 to 28 d age, the optimal Met requirement for the BW, breast meat yield, and the fourth primary wing feather length were 0.510, 0.445, and 0.404%, respectively, based on quadratic broken-line model, and correspondingly were 0.606, 0.576, and 0.559% by quadratic regression. For ducks from 15 to 35 d age, the optimal Met requirement for BW, breast meat yield, and feather coverage were 0.468, 0.408, and 0.484%, respectively, by quadratic broken-line model, and 0.605, 0.564, and 0.612%, by quadratic regression, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Nutrition, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an 625014, China.
authors.forename: Q F
authors.initials: QF
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Maple Leaf Farms, Leesburg, IN 46538.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Doster
authors.affiliation: Maple Leaf Farms, Leesburg, IN 46538.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Murdoch
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Makagon
authors.affiliation: Maple Leaf Farms, Leesburg, IN 46538.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 applegt@purdue.edu.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Applegate
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary; D019587:Dietary Supplements / Q000032:analysis; D004372:Ducks / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D005241:Feathers / Q000254:growth & development; D008460:Meat / Q000032:analysis; D008715:Methionine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000378:metabolism*; D011897:Random Allocation
chemical_list: D008715:Methionine
keywords: Pekin ducks; carcass traits; feather growth; methionine