COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON SOME PRODUCTIVE TRAITS AND GENETIC DIVERSITY OF TWO LOCAL STRAINS OF DUCKS: SUDANI AND DOMYATI

The present study aimed to investigate the Genetic Diversity and productive Performance for Some Duck Local strains (sudani and domiaty) using Microsatellite genotyping analysis. From the hatched duck chicks, fifty day old ones were taken at random from each strain and reared under the same environmental, managerial and hygienic conditions from one day old until they aged 12 weeks (marketing age). The comparison was held between the two local duck strains for the following traits: Body weight and body measurements measured biweekly from day old until 12 weeks (pooled sex). Body measurements (shank length, keel length and body circumference) measured at 4,8,12 weeks of age for each strain. All chicks provided reared on floor pens, feed and water were provided ad-libitum all ducks chicks fed on two types of rations: A starter ration (from 0-4wks) and A finisher one (from 5-12 wks). The results indicated that There were significant differences in Body weight at all studied ages between Sudani and Domiaty strains (except at 2, 6 wks.) in hatching the average body weight of the Sudanese strain was 40.80 g however it was 34.12 g for the domyati strain, At 4 weeks age, the average body weight of Sudanese strain was 617.21g while it was 446.38g for the domyati strain, At 8 weeks age, the average body weight of Sudanese strain was1490.90g since it was 1235.98g for the domyati strain and At 12 weeks age, the average  body weight of Sudanese strain was 2211.0g while was 1691.88g for the domyati strain. Also Body measurements of duck during early periods of growth (aged 4, 8 and 12 weeks) was At 4 wks age there were no significant differences between the two strains, At the age of 8 wks, the same trend was observed concerning the absence of the significant differences between strains and At the age of 12 wks, there were significant differences between the two strains of the breast circumference only where the superiority was recorded for the domyati strain,  This may be reflected the genetic differences between the two strains. The results appeared that the PIC (polymorphic information content) of most microsatellite sites was lower than 0.5. This means that the selected microsatellite loci had a1ow diversity and can reflect the genetic relationship among Sudani and Domiaty populations. This assured that both sudani and domyati populations could be considered as a near populations on a molecular level.