Morphometric parameters analysis of white and brown Domyati ducks (Local Mallard in Egypt)

Abstract

Morphometric traits or body conformation traits also called linear body measurements are important in predicting marketing body weight especially for commercial breeders and producers. The total number of reared Domyati ducklings are 168 hatched, at marketing age (8 wks.) 44 brown and 14 white Domyati ducks were used to estimate the body weight and body measurements such as shank length (ShL), keel length (KL), body circumference (BC), breast length (BrL), breast width (BrW), beak width (BL), and body length (BL). Our results showed that there is no significant difference between both white and brown Domyati ducks for body measurements. There was high positive correlation among body weight and body measurements on both white and brown Domyati ducks, especially in brown line. With respect to regression analysis, the R2 was higher for body measurements of white Domyati duck, while it was lower on brown Domyati ducks. The correlation was positive in both phenotypes but was higher in the Domyati brown duck, and there was a clear difference in the regression analysis between the two phenotypes in of Domyati ducks. The R2 was lower in brown Domyati duck, while the R2 was higher on white Domyati duck for most studied body measurements. In conclusion, there was a feather color effect on linear regression models and correlation among body weight and body measurements.