The demand for processed meat products is increasing globally due to the rapid urbanization, improving

The present study was carried out on 360 unsexed day-old ducklings (Desi) procured from the hatchery of Regional Center, CARI, Bhubaneswar distributed randomly into three treatment groups with three replicates in each group during brooding (0-8 weeks of age) by feeding 18, 20 or 22% crude protein respectively and growing periods (8-16 weeks of age) by feeding 14, 16 and 18% crude protein respectively to study the mortality, carcass characteristics, biochemical parameters, time motion study and economics. It was found that the mortality of ducklings under different treatments ranged from 6.67-8.33% during 0-8 weeks of age and was within normal range indicating that the different levels of protein supplementation in the diet could not influence the health condition of the ducks. There was no significant difference in the carcass traits with respect to dressing percentage or percentage of giblet, blood loss, feather weight, inedible viscera and cutup parts between different treatments at 16 weeks of age. There was no significant difference in the serum uric acid concentration (mg dLG 1 ) between different levels of protein supplementation in the diet. Further, the total time spent for rearing 40 ducks from 0-4 weeks of age was 4.71-4.8 h man and during 5-8 weeks of age, it was 4.94-5.27 h man. One laborer working for a period of 8 h man per day can manage 1864-1900 ducks of 0-4 weeks of age and 1699-1811 ducks of 5-8 weeks of age. The feed cost per kg live weight gain was lowest in the ducks with 14% crude protein in the ration during 9-16 weeks of age compared to the ducks provided with the ration containing 16 or 18% crude protein.

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