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Housing and Management in Duck and Goose Production: Implications on...
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Housing and Management in Duck and Goose Production: Implications on Performance, Health and Behavior

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Poultry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 8164

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Maja M. Makagon

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Animal Welfare, Animal Science Department, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
Interests: poultry; housing and management; animal behavior; animal welfare

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ducks and geese are important commodities across in the world, with billions of ducks and geese raised each year for meat and meat-derived products, eggs, feathers, and as breeding stock. Housing and management decisions are known to have profound impacts on the production efficiency, health, and behavior of poultry. However, compared to other poultry, research on the proper housing and management of domesticated waterfowl species is sparse. For this Special Issue, we invite original research papers and review articles that address any aspect of housing and management of waterfowl raised for the production of meat and meat-derived products, feathers, or eggs, including breeding stock. Of particular interest are articles that measure production, health, behavior, and other welfare-related outputs. We invite submissions from all geographical areas, on all breeds of ducks and geese, and relevant to small- or large-scale production systems.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Maja M. Makagon
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • duck
  • geese
  • waterfowl
  • housing
  • management

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 305 KiB  
Article
Production Efficiency and Utility Features of Broiler Ducks Fed with Feed Thinned with Wheat Grain
by Jakub Biesek, Mirosław Banaszak, Małgorzata Grabowicz, Sebastian Wlaźlak and Marek Adamski
Animals 2022, 12(23), 3427; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12233427 - 05 Dec 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1610
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the production efficiency (economics), growth, and meat quality of ducks fed with feed partially replaced with wheat. A total of 200 ducks were reared for 49 days. Each group consisted of 50 ducks (5 pens [...] Read more.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the production efficiency (economics), growth, and meat quality of ducks fed with feed partially replaced with wheat. A total of 200 ducks were reared for 49 days. Each group consisted of 50 ducks (5 pens with 10 birds). For slaughter, 10 birds per group were chosen. The control group (C) was provided with a complete feed. In the experimental groups, from 42 to 49 days, the feed was replaced with wheat grains at the level of 10% (W10), 20% (W20), or 40% (W40). In the W20 and W40 groups, the cost of feed was reduced. In the W40 group, the profit per 1 kg carcass was increased by PLN 3.34 (more than 24% higher than the C group profit). A higher percentage of pectoral muscles and intramuscular fat was observed in the W20 group, with lower water content. A lower water-holding capacity (WHC) was observed in the duck leg muscles in group W40. The muscles from the W20 group had higher protein, collagen, and water content, and the fat was highest in the W40 group. A lower toughness of cooked meat was observed in the W20 group, and lower shear force in the pectoral muscles of groups C and W40. Thinning feed with wheat grains could represent an alternative to conventional feeding of broiler ducks, owing to reduced feed costs, with no negative impact on utility features, including growth, except the share of pectoral muscle and water absorption traits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Housing and Management in Duck and Goose Production: Implications on Performance, Health and Behavior)
12 pages, 1986 KiB  
Article
The Impacts of Female Access during Rearing on the Reproductive Behavior and Physiology of Pekin Drakes, and Flock Fertility
by Lindsey J. Broadus, Brian Lee and Maja M. Makagon
Animals 2022, 12(21), 2979; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12212979 - 29 Oct 2022
Viewed by 1746
Abstract
Commercially housed Pekin ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) are typically reared in same sex groups to facilitate separate diet provisioning. Several female ducklings are sometimes mixed into the otherwise all-male pens. This practice is thought to increase flock reproductive success. To evaluate this [...] Read more.
Commercially housed Pekin ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) are typically reared in same sex groups to facilitate separate diet provisioning. Several female ducklings are sometimes mixed into the otherwise all-male pens. This practice is thought to increase flock reproductive success. To evaluate this hypothesis, we reared ducklings in alternating same-sex groups (150 hens or 30 drakes/pen; 8 groups/sex) and evaluated the impacts of rearing on drake mounting behavior, testosterone levels, and flock fertility. At 12 days, three females were placed into four of the male duckling pens. At 20–22 weeks of age, adjacent male and female pens were moved into pens within a breeder barn, and combined to form mixed-sex pens. The number of correctly aligned mounts performed by 10 focal drakes per pen was evaluated over 3 days (12 h/day) at 26, 32, and 45 weeks of age. Circulating testosterone concentrations were analyzed from blood plasma samples collected from the focal drakes at 15 (baseline), 22, 28, 34 and 45 weeks of age. Pen-level fertility was determined at 33–34 and 45–46 weeks of age. Mount and testosterone data were analyzed using a Generalized Linear Mixed Model and a Linear Mixed Model in R 4.0.5, with duck in pen as a random effect. A Linear Mixed Model was used to analyze fertility data, with pen as a random effect. None of the measured variables were impacted by rearing treatment, but all varied with flock age. Physical access to female ducklings during rearing did not enhance flock reproductive success. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Housing and Management in Duck and Goose Production: Implications on Performance, Health and Behavior)
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10 pages, 845 KiB  
Article
Characteristics of the Mating Behavior of Domesticated Geese from Anser cygnoides and Anser anser
by Qiang Bao, Yang Zhang, Ying Yao, Xuan Luo, Wenming Zhao, Jiwen Wang, Guohong Chen and Qi Xu
Animals 2022, 12(18), 2326; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12182326 - 07 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1604
Abstract
Mating behavior is a critically important component of poultry reproduction. Here, a total of 135 geese were selected, specifically, Sichuan white geese (Anser cygnoides), Zhedong white geese (Anser cygnoides), and Hungarian geese (Anser anser) (300-day-old), and the [...] Read more.
Mating behavior is a critically important component of poultry reproduction. Here, a total of 135 geese were selected, specifically, Sichuan white geese (Anser cygnoides), Zhedong white geese (Anser cygnoides), and Hungarian geese (Anser anser) (300-day-old), and the mating behavior was monitored daily from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. during the 20-day observation period. The results showed that the mating process included mounting, female cooperation, and successful copulation. Overall, the three breeds preferred mating on land. More than thirty percent of the mating time was primarily concentrated from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in domesticated geese from Anser cygnoides, the corresponding values for Sichuan white geese and Zhedong white geese were 32.0% and 33.3%, respectively. The mating of the Hungarian geese usually took place in the morning. In addition, the frequency of successful copulation of Sichuan white geese and Zhedong white geese were 2.31 and 1.94 times per day, significantly greater than that of Hungarian geese (0.89 times). Furthermore, a significant positive correlation between successful copulation and laying rates (r = 0.985) or fertilization rates (r = 0.992) was observed in Hungarian geese. Taken together, the mating behaviors among the different breeds were mainly reflected in time preference and successful copulation frequency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Housing and Management in Duck and Goose Production: Implications on Performance, Health and Behavior)
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25 pages, 26558 KiB  
Article
A Two-Stage Method to Detect the Sex Ratio of Hemp Ducks Based on Object Detection and Classification Networks
by Xingze Zheng, Feiyi Li, Bin Lin, Donghang Xie, Yang Liu, Kailin Jiang, Xinyao Gong, Hongbo Jiang, Ran Peng and Xuliang Duan
Animals 2022, 12(9), 1177; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12091177 - 04 May 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2462
Abstract
The sex ratio is an important factor affecting the economic benefits of duck groups in the process of hemp duck breeding. However, the current manual counting method is inefficient, and the results are not always accurate. On the one hand, ducks are in [...] Read more.
The sex ratio is an important factor affecting the economic benefits of duck groups in the process of hemp duck breeding. However, the current manual counting method is inefficient, and the results are not always accurate. On the one hand, ducks are in constant motion, and on the other hand, the manual counting method relies on manpower; thus, it is difficult to avoid repeated and missed counts. In response to these problems, there is an urgent need for an efficient and accurate way of calculating the sex ratio of ducks to promote the farming industry. Detecting the sex ratio of ducks requires accurate counting of male ducks and female ducks. We established the world’s first manually marked sex classification dataset for hemp ducks, including 1663 images of duck groups; 17,090 images of whole, individual duck bodies; and 15,797 images of individual duck heads, which were manually captured and had sex information markers. Additionally, we used multiple deep neural network models for the target detection and sex classification of ducks. The average accuracy reached 98.68%, and with the combination of Yolov5 and VovNet_27slim, we achieved 99.29% accuracy, 98.60% F1 score, and 269.68 fps. The evaluation of the algorithm’s performance indicates that the automation method proposed in this paper is feasible for the sex classification of ducks in the farm environment, and is thus a feasible tool for sex ratio estimation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Housing and Management in Duck and Goose Production: Implications on Performance, Health and Behavior)
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