Physical form of feed and anti pecking devices in Muscovy ducklings

The effect of anti pecking devices and physical feed forms were studied on the performance of the Muscovy ducklings. A total of 300 Muscovy ducklings fed two ad libitum distributed diets: starter (1-42 d) and Finisher (43d -slaughtering age). The considered form of feed were: pelle-pellet (F1), crumble-pellet (F2), mash-mash (F3), for starter and finisher respectively; a no treted group (Tr1) and three anti pecking treatments were employed: 7 d.o. beak trimmed birds (Tr2), 21 d.o. beak trimmed birds (Tr3) and 21 d.o. blinkered birds (Tr4). For physical feed form, the results showed a significantly (P<0.01) highest growth rate (g.r.) of birds fed with f2 started diet (g.r./d/bird 21-42 d.: F1 =51g, F2 =56g, F3 = 52g). At the slaughtering age, g.r. of birds fed with the different forms did not show significantly differences . For antipecking devices the results showed a significant reduction of g.r. in the week following the debeaking treatmens.