This book has been written primarily to meet the criteria for the housing, feeding, nutritional, and health management of ducks for both veterinary students and poultry entrepreneurs. Although ducks provide high-quality nutritional food through their meat and eggs, their production is still lower than that of chickens. Ducks naturally feed on insects, snails, kitchen waste, paddy grains, and weeds, but supplementary feed is also necessary for optimal production. We would like to express our gratitude to the contributors of the various chapters for their timely and informative contributions.
The book is divided into several chapters, including housing, feeding, nutritional, and health management. Under health management, infectious and non-infectious diseases are discussed in detail. The diseases are listed alphabetically within each chapter, except for an index that helps the reader quickly locate the required information.
Appropriate photographs related to the health and disease management of ducks have been included in the relevant sections of the book.
The book with a title of “Duck Rearing and Health Management” has been prepared primarily with an idea of satisfying the criteria of the Housing, feeding, nutritional and health management of duck for the veterinary students and poultry entrepreneur of this country. Ducks are sturdy, prolific and disease resistance in nature. In India ducks are reared on natural scavenging system in backyard by poor rural farmers for their livelihood. Ducks are reared for egg, meat and feather production and in India ducks are concentrated in Eastern, North eastern and Southern states of the country. Though ducks’ meat and eggs contribution in providing high-quality nutritional food but the production of meat and duck eggs is still lower as compared to chickens. They feed on like insects, snails and waste from kitchen, paddy grains and weeds as natural sources, yet extra feed supplements also need to be provided for better production.
Domestication is the most extensive biological experiment ever undertaken by man. It has involved millions of animals and has extended through many centuries. It still continues and animal domestication was one of the major contributory factors to the agricultural revolution during the Neolithic period, which resulted in a shift in human lifestyle from hunting to farming. There are two species of domestic duck, the common duck, domesticated from the wild mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), and the Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata). Both are members of the Anatinae. In both species, the same scientific binomial is used for the domestic and the wild forms. Inter-breeding between the two species occurs, but their offspring are infertile. Both species of domestic duck produce eggs and meat and both are valuable on farms and smallholdings for reducing pests.
The term “Poultry” indicates to all the domesticated species of birds like chicken, ducks, turkeys, Japanese quail, guinea fowls, geese, pigeons, ostrich, emu etc. Ducks account for 7% of poultry population and are mostly found in coastal states of the country and in states with more lakes and rivers like West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Tripura. Duck farming is still in primitive stage and indigenous ducks outnumbered the exotic ducks in spite of their inferior performance. In India 90-95% of ducks are indigenous or nondescript types, which are hardly, with mediocre egg production and highly suitable for extensive system of rearing.
Duck farming in India is characterized by nomadic, extensive, seasonal, and is still held in the hands of small and marginal farmers. Traditionally Assam, West Bengal and Kerala are the major consumer states for duck egg and meat and one of the reasons is that duck egg and meat highly suits and impart taste for their fish based culinary preparations. Different housing system for Duck rearing In general, ducks do not require elaborate houses. The house should be well ventilated, dry, and rat proof. In semi-intensive system of rearing, the house should have easy access to outside run as the ducks prefer to come out during the day time, winter and rainy time.
Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is one type of indigenous poultry species, reared traditionally by the poor farmers for their livelihood. Maximum numbers of duck flocks concentrate in the paddy (Oryza sativa) growing and watershed areas of the state like Assam, Bihar, Manipur, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, and Tripura. Ducks rise on the free-range system with readily available fallen grains in paddy fields, insects, snails, earthworms, small fishes, and other aquatic materials.
Duck production has an immense role in improving the socio-economical status of rural farmers. In India, duck farming occupies an important place next to chicken farming. Duck contributes about 7-10% of the total poultry population of the world. Ducks are water fowl, hence, they need a semi-aquatic lifestyle. They need a pond, lake, river, canal or any such type of water bodies for their survival. Thus, they are mainly concentrated in West Bengal, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir and Manipur. Ducks are reared for both eggs and meat purposes. Unfortunately, duck farming is not done in an organized way in our country.
Poultry in general and duck in particular are not free from diseases though they are far more cold-hardy and healthier than the chickens. Infectious agents are not the only cause of diseases in poultry. However, it can be affected by a wide range of diseases that is caused by the non-infectious agents and it can range from cases of cannibalism to various nutritional related diseases or disorders. Unlike the infectious diseases which tends to affect a whole litter, non-infectious diseases may however be sometime confined to a single bird. Non infectious diseases can be basically categorized into subgroups like –
Ducks are members of the order Anseriformes and belong to the family Anatidae. Ducks, swans and geese are all members of the Anatidae family; however, ducks are smaller and have a shorter neck. Ducks are tough birds that require little care or management. People all over the world enjoyed and consume duck meat and eggs. Ducks produce more eggs than hens. The size is also larger than that of a chicken. Ducks require less attention and perform well in scavenger hunts. Ducks are second only to chickens in many countries for meat and eggs. Ducks can be raised commercially or on a small scale for meat or eggs, even in backyards with other birds or animals.
The duck environment usually involves the presence of water bodies (man-made or natural) which may enhance the co-mingling of free-living waterfowl species with the domestic flock promote disease transmission. Besides, environmental conditions also influence disease manifestation in ducks. The most of the viral diseases in ducks are contagious and transmitted very easily among the healthy birds in contact. The infectious viral diseases most commonly seen in domestic waterfowl species includes duck plaque, duck viral hepatitis, avian influenza, musky duck parvo virus infections, duck pox etc. These viral diseases cause great economic loss to the poultry industry due to high mortality and morbidity rate.
Protozoa are single celled eukaryotes which are either parasitic or free living belonged to family apicomplexa. These protozoan affects the different birds like chickens, turkey, ducks, pigeons, game birds and also various pet birds. The infection caused by protozoan diseases may affect one system or more than one system of the body depending on the causative agents involved. The common protozoan diseases like leukocytozonosis, chochlosomiasis, cryptosporidiosis, coccidiosis, histoplasmosis causes infection in the ducks. The protozoan diseases cause severe economic loss to the poultry industry due to death of birds, expenditure on the treatment and prevention of disease and loss of egg and meat production.
Fungus is member of group of eukaryotic organisms that includes yeasts and molds. The fungi are heterotrophs and they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules by secreting digestive enzyme in the environment. It is present in common place in the environment and some are normal inhabitants of the skin, gastrointestinal tract and other mucous membrane surfaces. Generally if birds immunity is intact and fully operational then it will overcome the fungal infection in most situations, In case of compromised immune system it will cause development of serious infections. Paramount to properly managing fungal infections in avian species is the ability to recognize infection early in the course of disease, to administer appropriate antifungal medications for the location and severity of infection, and to continually assess a patient’s response to therapy.
The domestic duck is an economically important domestic bird in rural areas. They are productive and are reared around the globe for their egg, meat, feather and fattened livers. The worldwide population of ducks (Anas spp.) is 1.15 billion in 2020 out of which 89 per cent were in Asia. China, Viet Nam, Bangladesh and Indonesia are the largest duck rearing countries in Asia (FAO 2020). Geographical location, subtropical climatic condition, water lodged and low areas of the country are suitable for duck habitat. The advantages of ducks over other poultry species are that they are hardy, have higher disease tolerance and are easy to herd.
Ducks are prone to several external parasites and are also affected by external parasites found in other poultry birds. Birds are plagued by an remarkable range of ectoparasites, ranging from feather-feeding lice, to feather degrading bacteria and many of these ectoparasites have severe harmful effects on host health. External parasites can make ducks very uncomfortable, transmits several diseases and can be fatal in untreated cases. Among the ectoparasites lice is most commonly found in ducks. Ectoparasites infested birds become restless and the feeding and sleeping is disturbed resulting in decreased growth rate and egg production. Common ectoparasites present on ducks-
India is a “Winter / Summer Home” for most of the Siberian birds such as Siberian Cranes, Greater Flamingo and Demoiselle Crane, also numerous species of birds from other regions of the world. These beautiful birds migrate to India every year during the winter and summer season for food, breeding and nesting. The migratory birds mainly arriving from Siberia and South East Asia move to the different wetland spots of the national parks/ wildlife sanctuaries etc. in India and are also seen in parts of the lakes and settling down in shallow or fresh water ponds.
In this chapter we will discuss about economics of raising 100 Khaki Campbell duck for egg production. Popular breed of ducks for egg production includes Khaki Campbell and Indian Runner. Among the egg laying breeds, Khaki Campbell is the best producer. Individual egg production of almost an egg a day in this breed for well over twelve months has been recorded and flock averages in excess of 300 eggs per duck per year are not uncommon. Khaki Campbell ducks weigh about 2-2.2 kgs and drakes 2.2-2.4 kgs. Egg size varies from 65-70 gms. Cost and estimates for establishment of a 100+15 Khaki Campbell duck unit (under semi-intensive system)
A Absorption 35, 49, 66, 71, 100 Achilles’ tendon slips 78 Acid-fast bacilli 122 Acyl carrier protein 73 Aflatoxin Poisoning 97 Air sacculitis 115, 126, 165, 205, 210, 211
