Variable sources of dietary fat on the performance of the Khaki Campbell ducks

One hundred fifty day old Khaki Campbell ducklings were randomly assigned into five dietary treatments with three replicates of 10 ducklings each. The groups were i) control (C) - provided basal diet without additional oil, ii) treatment 1 - provided basal diet with 2% palm oil (PO), iii) treatment 2 - provided basal diet with 2% lard (L), iv) treatment 3 -provided basal diet with 2% berga fat (BF) and v) treatment 4 - provided basal diet with 2% soybean oil (SO). The results of the 20 weeks, growth study showed that body weight gain was significantly (P<0.05) varied among the experimental groups. Higher body weight gain and feed conversion was obtained in the soybean oil supplemented group (SO). Feed intake was not varied significantly in different groups. There was no significant variation in plasma glucose, total protein, albumin and globulin among the treatment groups but cholesterol and triglyceride levels were significantly (P<0.05) varied among treatment groups and higher value was observed in lard supplemented group than others. Carcass traits did not varied significantly however abdominal fat varied significantly (P<0.05). The pH, water holding capacity (WHC) and fiber diameter of duck meat did not varied significantly due to different dietary treatment. Thus it may be concluded that soybean oil was found to be superior than other source of fat for growing Khaki Campbell ducks.