The effectiveness addition various levels of essential amino acids into two types of rations to improve feed efficiency and performance of Alabio ducks aged 9 to 18 weeks Maijon Purba, Tiurma Pasaribu, Arnold P. Sinurat, Tatan Kostaman, Rudy Prasetyo, Jonathan Lase and Endang Sutedy
National Research and Innovation Agency Bogor-Cibinong-Indonesia
Abstract
Determination nutritional requirements of rations, especially essential amino acids (lysine, methionine, threonine and tryptophan) (EAA) followed by the appropriate form of feed for duck farming is still relevant to be studied. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of addition different levels of EAA (0, 10, 20%) into two types of rations (mash, pelleted) to improve feed efficiency and performance of Alabio ducks. A total of 360 Alabio female ducks were kept and investigated since 9 to 18 weeks old (10 weeks of maintenance). All ducks were randomly kept in 36 pens with acrylic floors, length and width of pens were 3x2 m2 respectively. The ducks allocated into 6 treatments, 6 replications (10 ducks per replicate). The research was designed as a completely randomized design (CRD) in a 3x2 factorial pattern. The first factor were 3 levels of EAA (0, 10 and 20%), the second factor were 2 types of feed (mash and pellets). The variables observed included: feed consumption (FC), body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and live body weight (LBW) were recorded weekly. The results showed that addition various levels of EAA into two types of rations had significant effect (P<0.05) on duck performance. FC of Alabio ducks with the addition of EAA into 2 types of rations (mash and pellet) had significantly different (P>0.05) compared to the control treatment. Supplementation various levels of EAA in 2 types of treatment rations for 10 weeks did not significant effect on the BWG and LBW of ducks, but had significant effect on the FCR variable (P<0.05). The best treatment ration to produce FC and FCR of Alabio ducks during 10 weeks of observation was achieved by the provision of T5 treatment ration (AAE level was 10% and feed given was pellet type). It was concluded that the addition 10% of AAE into pelleted type of rations at 9 to 18 weeks old increased feed efficiency and improved the performance of Alabio ducks.
