This study was carried out to investigate the growth performance and the carcass ratio of meat-type Korean Native Ducks. Four hundred twenty Korean Native Ducks' chicks were selected and divided into four treatments (7 replications/treatment, 15 birds/replication) by strains (A and B) and gender(male and female) with 2×2 fractal factors. There was no significant difference between A and B on the body weight at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks old (P>0.05). However, body weight of female was higher at 2 weeks old than male while that of male was higher at the 8 weeks old (P<0.01). Daily feed intake of male was higher compared to female during 6～8 weeks (P<0.05). On weekly body weight gain, there was no significant difference between strains, but gained body weight of male was higher until 2 weeks old while that of female was higher during 6～8 weeks (P<0.01). On the live body weight and carcass weight by strains and genders, B strain was higher than A strains at the 8 weeks of age (P<0.01). Carcass yield was the highest at 8 weeks of age in both strains (P<0.05). These results may provided the basic data on growth performance and carcass ratio of meat-type Korean Native Ducks.

This work was conducted to investigate the performance and meat characteristics of commercial Korean native duck (KND). A total of 180 1-d-old ducklings of 2-way crossbreds from A and B lines (from National Institute of Animal Science) were used in this work and divided into 4 groups (3 replicates/group, 15 birds/replicate). The four groups were 4 crossbreds as AA (A line [♀]×A line [♂]), AB (A line [♀]×B line [♂]), BB (Pure line B strains) and BA (B strains [♀]×A strain [♂]). Ducks were fed diets based on corn-soybean meal for 0 to 3 wk (22.4% crude protein [CP], 2,945 kcal/kg metabolizable energy [ME]) and 3 to 8 wk (18.4% CP, 3,047 kcal/kg ME). As a result of this study, average body weight of 4 crossbreds were 625, 1,617, 2,466, and 2,836 g at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks, respectively, and significantly increased over the period of time (p<0.05). Body weight of BB group was greater than other crossbreds at the age of 6 weeks (p<0.05). There was a significant difference in weekly body weight gains (p<0.05), which were 573, 991, 850, and 371 g at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks old, respectively. Uniformity of 4 crossbreds was 84.9%, 80.5%, and 72.5% at 6, 7, and 8 weeks, respectively, and there was no difference among crossbreds. Body weight gain of BB crossbred was highest among crossbreds (p<0.05). Weekly feed intake significantly increased with weeks as 669, 1,839, 2,812, and 3,381 g at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks respectively (p<0.05). Feed intakes of AA and BB crossbreds were higher at 2 to 4 weeks old than others and that of BB crossbred was highest at 4 to 6 weeks old (p<0.05). Weekly feed conversion ratios were 1.17, 1.86, 3.32, and 9.37 at 0 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 6, and 6 to 8 weeks old, respectively, and it increased with age (p<0.05). There was no significant difference in feed conversion ratio among crossbreds. Carcass yields of 4 crossbreds were 73.6%, 71.6%, 73.5%, and 71.7%, respectively, so there was no significant difference among crossbreds. There was no difference in wing, neck, breast and leg ratios among crossbreds. However, back ratios of 4 crossbreds were 17.6%, 18.0%, 15.8%, and 17.6%, respectively, and back ratio of BB was the highest among crossbreds. Finally, these results may provide the basic data on the production, carcass quality, fatty acid and amino acid composition of commercial KND with 2-way crossbreeding.

This work was carried out to investigate the performance of growing period of large-type Korean native ducks. A total of four hundred twenty female and male duck chicks generated from A and B strains of ducks. Groups were four crossbreds (3 replications/crossbred, 35 birds/ replication) as 2×2 factors (2 strains, A and B; 2 genders, female and male). On the body weight, male of B strains was the highest among 4 treatments after the age of 4 week (P<0.05). Body weight of B strain was higher than that of A strain at all period (P<0.05). Body weight of male was higher compared to that of female after the age of 4 week (P<0.05). On the body weight gain, male of B strain was the highest and female of A strain was the lowest among 4 treatments at 0～8, 0～12, 0～16 and 0～20 weeks (P<0.05). Body weight gain of male was higher than that of female after the age of 4 week (P<0.05). On the feed intake, male of B strain was the highest among 4 treatments from the age of 0 week and to the age of 4, 12, 16 and 20 week (P<0.05). Feed intake of male was higher than that of female at 0～12, 0～16 and 0～20 weeks (P<0.05). On the feed conversion ratio, male of B strain was the highest among other treatments 0～4 weeks and female of A strain was at 0～8 and 0～12 weeks (P<0.05). Feed intake of female was higher compared to that of female at 0～8 weeks and male was high at 0～20 weeks. These results provided the basic data on the record of growing phase of large-type Korean native ducks.

Meat from Korean native chickens (KNCs) has high consumer demand; however, slow growth performance and high variation in body weight (BW) of KNCs remain an issue. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) is a powerful method to identify quantitative trait-associated genomic loci. A GWAS, based on a large-scale KNC population, is needed to identify underlying genetic mechanisms related to its growth traits. To identify BW-associated genomic regions, we performed a GWAS using the chicken 60K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) panel for 1328 KNCs. BW was measured at 8 weeks of age, from 2018 to 2020. Twelve SNPs were associated with BW at the suggestive significance level (p < 2.95 × 10−5) and located near or within 11 candidate genes, including WDR37, KCNIP4, SLIT2, PPARGC1A, MYOCD and ADGRA3. Gene set enrichment analysis based on the GWAS results at p < 0.05 (1680 SNPs) showed that 32 Gene Ontology terms and two Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways, including regulation of transcription, motor activity, the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway, and tight junction, were significantly enriched (p < 0.05) for BW-associated genes. These pathways are involved in cell growth and development, related to BW gain. The identified SNPs are potential biomarkers in KNC breeding.

The current work was carried out to investigate the effect of crossbred Korean native chickens (KNC) on performance and carcass ratio. Seven hundred twenty 1-d-old chicks were divided into groups by strain (A, B, C and D) and sex (male and female). Strains were A) (KNC egg-meat type C strains × KNC meat type S strains) × KNC meat type H strains, B) (KNC egg-meat type C strains × KNC meat type H strains) × KNC meat type S strains, C) (KNC native R strains × KNC meat type S strains) × KNC meat type H strains and D) (KNC native L strains × KNC meat type H strains × Ross broiler. Experimental diets consisted of 3 phases such as starter(0～5 weeks; CP 20.0%, ME 3,050 kcal/kg), earlier (5～8 weeks; CP 18.0%, ME 3,100 kcal/kg) and finisher (8～12 weeks; CP 16.0%, ME 3,150 kcal/kg). Body weight (BW) and feed intake (FI) was measured every week and carcass ratio(CR) was calculated at 5 and 10 week after starting experiment. There was no difference in BW among strains until 5 weeks (P>0.05), however D strain resulted in a higher BW after 5 weeks (P<0.05). Body weight gain (BWG) and FI in D strain were also significant higher compared to the other strains for all periods. However, D strains showed the lowest (P<0.05) fee conversion ratio (FCR). The other strains except D showed a similar BW, BWG, FI and FCR among strains. In addition, there were no differences in carcass weight (CW) and carcass ratio (CR) among strains at 5 weeks, however D strain showed higher CW and CR at 10 weeks. These results suggested the basic data that needed to develope the new strains.