Shkurko M. Efficiency of duck meat production in pure-breeding and hybridization

The thesis is devoted to the comparative analysis of productivity of different breeds and populations of ducks and carrying out remote search crosses with the use of a domestic gene pool to determine the most suitable variants of intergeneric duck hybrid. The observations conducted have shown that musk species of ducks (parental forms) and populations of domestic ducks (maternal forms) are characterized by a contrasting (differentiated) manifestation of egg production, egg mass and live weight that serves as a reliable biological basis for the manifestation of heterosis of economically useful traits in intergeneric mulard hybrids. Three search crosses were performed to obtain domestic mulards: ♂ musk brown x ♀ ukrainian gray (crossings №1); ♂ musk brown x ♀ ukrainian clay (crossing № 2); ♂ musk white x ♀ ukrainian white (crossing № 3). In just 2 years, 939 intergeneric hybrids (ukrainian mulards) were obtained. In a comparative aspect, the dynamics of live weight and the preservation of three varieties of Ukrainian mulards and young of the original parental forms were studied. Throughout the growing period, mulards showed a heterosis effect on live weight. True heterosis in pre-slaughter live weight was amounted to 10,56%, and zootechnical – 17,04%. The production testing of the best Ukrainian hybrid confirmed the high efficiency of its breeding for meat. According to the degree of reduction of pre-slaughter live weight, the groups of birds were arranged in the following sequence: hybrid № 3 (4207±24,2 g), musk white (3805±59,7 g), ukrainian white (3384±21,3 g). In hybrids, a significant deviation in the sex ratio in diurnal mulards towards males (52,56 – 59,25%), and among the dead embryos - towards females (51,47 – 78,10%). The spectrum of morphological hereditary anomalies of dead embryos (5 phenotypes) and diurnal ducklings (2 phenotypes) of two species of ducks and intergeneric hybrid was characterized by significant similarity. The average value of genetic load among the dead embryos of domestic duck was 1,92%, musk duck – 2,74%, and intergeneric hybrid – 4,20%.