Effect of natural versus artificial incubation on embryonic development of Pekin, Muscovy and Sudani (Egyptian Muscovy) ducks crosses

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the incubation type (natural and artificial) on some incubation parameters for the Pekin, Muscovy and Sudani duck crosses. At sexual maturity, body weight and body measurements were recorded. Eighteen Fayoumi ducks females (Carina moschata) were used for natural incubation, each female brooded 15 eggs in one hatch. A total number of 299, 150 were collected from the mating from the cross between Muscovy male with Sudani females (MS), 281, 120 hatching eggs from the cross between the Pekin Males with Sudani females (PS) and 190 and 150 from mating between Sudani males with the same genetic females (SS) for artificial incubation (AI) and natural incubation (NI), respectively. The fertility, hatchability, embryonic mortality at 7, 14, 21 and 28 days and relative one-day duck weight were measured during the incubation period. Results revealed that Muscovy duck males had significantly higher body weight or body measurements at sexual maturity (P<0.0001) than other duck strains. Fertility was significantly higher (P<0.0001) in SS (Sudani x Sudani) compared to MS (Muscovy x Sudani) and PS (Pekin x Sudani) crosses. Early embryonic mortality (EEM) was significantly higher on the PS (P<0.0001); however the MS recorded higher embryonic mortality at 28 days (P<0.0001) in both natural and artificial incubation. The SS had significantly higher hatchability followed by MS and PS. In conclusion, the PS cross recorded lower fertility, hatchability and higher EEM in artificial and natural incubation compared to SS and MS crosses, this may be related to the genetic of the cross not incubation types or conditions.