Modelling hatchability and mortality in muscovy ducks using automatic linear modelling and artificial neural network

Abstract

This study was embarked upon to predict hatchability and mortality rate of Muscovy ducks in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Data were obtained from a total of 119 duck farmers. The automatic linear modelling (ALM) and artificial neural network (ANN) models were employed. The average flock size was 9.84±0.60 per household. The predicted hatchability mean values using ALM (8.66) and ANN (8.65) were similar to the observed value (8.66). The predicted mortality mean values using ALM (2.95) and ANN (3.03) were also similar to the observed value of 2.95. Experience in duck rearing, the educational status of farmers, source of foundation stock and season were the variables of importance in the prediction of hatchability using ALM and ANN models. However, primary occupation, source of foundation stock, experience in duck rearing, land holding and management system were the important variables automatically selected for the prediction of mortality. Moderate coefficients of determination (R2 = 0.422 vs 0.376) and adjusted R2 (0.417 vs 0.371) estimates were obtained for hatchability and mortality using ALM. Different patterns were obtained under the ANN models as regards the prediction of hatchability (R2= 0.573 and adjusted R2= 0.569) and mortality (R2= 0.615 and adjusted R2= 0.612). The present information may aid management decisions towards better hatchability and mortality performance in Muscovy ducks.

The Growth and Carcass Quality Performance of Ciayumajakuning Muscovy Ducks First Offspring

“…Kuningan and Majalengka Muscovy's high adaptability to the research location's temperature (Jatinangor) may contribute to this low rate. This result confirmed that a contributing factor to livestock mortality is their adaptability to the environmental condition [11]. This study's average mortality rate of drake and duck Muscovy ducks was better than 8.33% [7] on Muscovy ducks aged 0-6 months.…”

“…The gizzards of drake mallard and Muscovy ducks reared under the semi-intensive maintenance tend to be heavier than those in the intensive maintenance. This situation could be due to the increased intake of high-fiber feed in the semi-intensive maintenance, whereas intensive farming has provided all important nutrition for Muscovy ducks in their feed [3], [11].…”

“…al. [10] on Muscovy duck maintenance di South Africa and Yakubu et al [11] on Muscovy ducks in the humid, tropical regions. This research aimed to investigate the growth and carcass quality performance of Ciayumajakuning Muscovy ducks first offspring.…”

Identifying contributing factors to China’s declining share of renewable energy consumption: no silver bullet to decarbonisation

“…In other words, we ran the ALM analysis to find the most stable (reliable) model for the ANN analysis. The ALM was introduced in IBM SPSS Version 19 and enabled researchers to automatically select the best subset (Oshima and Dell-Ross 2016 ), i.e., the ALM assists us in choosing the best model for subsequent ANN (or regression) analyses (Yakubu et al 2019 ). ALM has several computational and technical advantages over traditional linear regression approaches.…”