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Background In the late phase of production, ducks untimely cease laying, leading to a lower feed conversion. Liver plays a vital role in the synthesis and transport of yolk materials during egg formation in birds. However, the molecular mechanism of liver in ceased-laying duck is far from clear, higher resolution and deeper analysis is needed. Sing-cell RNA-sequencing of 10  ×  Genomics platform can help to map the liver single cell gene expression atlas of Shaoxing duck and provide new insights into the liver between egg-laying and ceased-laying ducks. Results About 20,000 single cells were profiled and 22 clusters were identified. All the clusters were identified as 6 cell types. The dominant cell type is hepatocyte, accounted for about 60% of all the cells. Of note, the heterogeneity of cells between egg-laying duck and ceased-laying duck mainly occurred in hepatocytes. Cells of cluster 3 and 12 were the unique hepatocyte states of egg-laying ducks, while cells of cluster 0 and 15 were the unique hepatocyte states of ceased-laying ducks. The expression mode of yolk precursor transporters, lipid metabolizing enzymes and fibrinogens were different in hepatocytes between egg-laying duck and ceased-laying duck. APOV1 , VTG2 , VTG1 , APOB , RBP , VTDB and SCD might be activated in egg-laying ducks, while APOA1 , APOA4 , APOC3 , FGB and FGG might be activated in ceased-laying ducks. Conclusions Our study further proofs that APOV1 and APOB play key roles in egg production, rather than APOA1 and APOA4 . It is also the first to detect a correlation between the higher expression of APOC3 , FGB , FGG and ceased-laying in duck.

This study was conducted to assess the effects of dietary supplementation of coated sodium butyrate (CSB) on the growth performance, serum antioxidant, immune performance, and intestinal microbiota of laying ducks. A total of 120 48-week-old laying ducks were randomly divided into 2 treatment groups: the control group (group C fed a basal diet) and the CSB-treated group (group CSB fed the basal diet + 250 g/t of CSB). Each treatment consisted of 6 replicates, with 10 ducks per replicate, and the trial was conducted for 60 days. Compared with the group C, the group CSB showed a significant increase in the laying rate (p<0.05) of the 53-56 week-old ducks. Additionally, the serum total antioxidant capacity, superoxide dismutase activity and immunoglobulin G level were significantly higher (p<0.05), while the serum malondialdehyde content and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a level were significantly lower (p<0.05) in the serum of the group CSB compared to the group C. Moreover, the expression of IL-1b and TNF-a in the spleen of the group CSB was significantly lower (p<0.05) compared to that of the group C. In addition, compared with the group C, the expression of Occludin in the ileum and the villus height in the jejunum were significantly higher in the group CSB (p<0.05). Furthermore, Chao1, Shannon, and Pielou-e indices were higher in the group CSB compared to the group C (p<0.05). The abundance of Bacteroidetes in the group CSB was lower than that in the group C (p<0.05), while the abundances of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria were higher in the group CSB compared to the group C (p<0.05). Our results suggest that the dietary supplementation of CSB can alleviate egg-laying stress in laying ducks by enhancing immunity and maintaining the intestinal health of the ducks.

Duck egg production is crucial to Thailand’s poultry industry, and supplying eggs is crucial to Thai and Chinese cuisine. While traditional duck farming occurs outdoors on rice fields, modern intensive farming prioritizes productivity and disease control, often relying on antibiotics. However, growing health and environmental concerns necessitate alternatives like probiotics. This study explored the effects of Bacillus toyonensis BCT-7112[sup.T], a non-toxigenic, spore-forming bacterium, on Khaki Campbell laying ducks. The results show improved egg weight and shell thickness, reduced ammonia emissions, and increased cecal microbiota diversity. Our findings suggest B. toyonensis BCT-7112[sup.T] enhances egg production, gut health, and microbial diversity, offering a sustainable feed additive for intensive duck farming.

Background Flaxseed has been widely used in animal diets to increase the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid content in animal products and promote overall animal health, but little known about its effects on the productive performance and the mictobita of gut of laying duck. Methods and results Jinding duck, a Chinese indigenous breed, was used in the study. The corn-soybean basal diet supplemented with 0, 2%, 3% 4% and 5% flaxseed were provided to Control, 2% Fla, 3% Fla, 4% Fla and 5% Fla groups for 53 days, respectively. Compared with Control group, groups fed with flaxseed diets showed higher egg production, egg mass, ovary weight and more preovulatory follicles. The Docosahexaenoic Acid content of egg was extremely significantly elevated by flaxseed diets ( P  < 0.01), and the albumen height and haugh unit were elevated, especially in 4% Fla and/or 5% Fla group ( P  < 0.05). Groups 4% Fla and 5% Fla had highest ileal villus height, jejunal and ileal crypt depth. Moreover, Flaxseed diets significantly increased the levels of IgG and IgM in all Fla groups ( P  < 0.01), while increased IgA levels except for in 3% Fla group ( P  < 0.05). The results of 16s rDNA sequencing showed that flaxseed diet altered the microbial composition of gut and reduced the diversity and evenness of gut microbial communities except for 5% Fla. The correlation analysis identified Blautia , Butyricicoccus and Subdoligranulum positively associated with egg production. Genera Fourinierella , Fusobacterium and Intestinimonas positively associated with ovary weight, haught unit and album height. And Mucispirillum positively associated with haugh unit and album height. Conclusion This study has suggested that flaxseed play a positive role in productive performance, the overall or intestinal health of laying ducks.

An experiment was carried out to investigate the influence of orifice size (4.5, 6, 8 and 10 mm) on the quality characteristics and acceptability of duck burger made from spent laying Khaki Campbell duck meat. Large orifice size resulted in lower fat and protein content compared to small orifice size. Hardness value also decreased significantly (p < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the diameter of shrinkage, cooking loss and colour of the burger. However, the hardness value decreased significantly with an increase in orifice size. The sensory evaluation showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) within the samples, but the overall acceptability score for burger prepared using 10 mm grind size was higher compared to those prepared at 4.5, 6 and 8 mm orifice sizes. Hence the 10 mm grind size was adopted as the optimum orifice size for spent laying Khaki Campbell duck burger.

This study examined the effects of replacing corn with an aged brown rice (ABR)–wheat mixture (ABR: wheat = 85%:15%) on laying performance, egg quality, yolk fatty acid profile, economic benefits, serum biochemistry, and nutrient digestibility in laying ducks. A 12-week trial with six hundred 32-week-old Jinding ducks were randomly divided into five groups, with 10 replicates per group, and each replicate contained 12 ducks. The levels of ABR–wheat mixture in the diet were 0%, 12.5%, 25%, 37.5%, and 50%, respectively, to replace equal amounts of corn. The basic diet of the control group was corn–soybean meal (corn accounted for 50%). The experimental period was 12 weeks (from 32 to 43 weeks old). No significant differences were observed in laying performances (p > 0.05). From a numerical perspective, the duck-housed laying rate and egg mass were highest in the 37.5% group and lowest in the 50% group. Yolk color declined linearly (p < 0.05) over 12 weeks. The albumen height and Haugh unit showed a quadratic increase in weeks 4 and 8 (p < 0.05). The relative content of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) increased linearly (p < 0.05), while the relative content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), ω-3 PUFA, ω-6 PUFA, and ω-6/ω-3 PUFA decreased linearly in egg yolks (p < 0.05). The triglycerides (TG) content in serum showed a significant secondary change (p < 0.05), with the 50% group significantly lower than the other treatment groups (p < 0.05). The apparent digestibility of ether extract (EE) in the diets decreased linearly (p < 0.05). The apparent digestibility of crude protein (CP) in the diets was significantly reduced with the 50% group (p < 0.05), while there was no significant difference between the 0% and 37.5% groups (p > 0.05). Compared with the control group, economic analysis revealed net gains of 0.04–0.10 USD/duck at ≤37.5% substitution, but a loss (−0.04 USD) at 50%. In conclusion, the ABR–wheat mixture could reduce the yolk color and yolk PUFA content, but it could improve albumen quality and increase yolk MUFA content. High-level ABR–wheat mixture (50%) significantly reduced the TG content in serum and nutrient digestibility of the diet and also showed a numerical decrease in laying rate and egg mass. Our findings suggest that up to a 37.5% ABR–wheat mixture can effectively replace corn in laying duck diets without negatively affecting laying performance, while improving albumen quality and altering yolk fatty acid composition.

To accurately and efficiently detect dead caged laying ducks, thereby reducing reliance on manual inspection, this study proposes a method that integrates infrared thermography with deep learning technology. A lightweight object detection algorithm is developed, utilizing YOLO v8n as the baseline model. The backbone network is replaced with StarNet, which is based on \"Star Operate\". Additionally, the C2f-Star structure is designed by combining the Star Block from StarNet with the C2f module, and it is inserted into the Neck structure of the baseline model. Lightweight module L-SPPF replaces the SPPF module in the baseline model to enhance feature augmentation. Furthermore, a lightweight shared convolutional detection head, termed SCSB-Head, is introduced to reduce computational complexity. These improvements collectively form a lightweight object detection algorithm named SLSS-YOLO. Experimental results show that SLSS-YOLO achieves mAP@50%-95%, precision, and recall scores of 80.50%, 99.44%, and 98.46%, respectively. Compared to the baseline model, these metrics improve by 1%, 1.98%, and 0.26%, respectively. In terms of model size and detection speed, SLSS-YOLO has 1.44 M parameters and 4.6 G FLOPs, achieving an FPS rate of 134.9 f/s. This represents a reduction of 52.16% and 43.90% in parameters and FLOPs, respectively, while increasing FPS by 5.4 f/s compared to the baseline model. Moreover, an object tracking model is constructed using SLSS-YOLO and Hybrid-SORT. Tracking tests demonstrate that Hybrid-SORT achieves zero ID-Switches, with a detection speed of 10.9 ms/f. It outperforms Bot-SORT, ByteTrack, Deep OC-SORT, and OC-SORT in terms of tracking performance. Therefore, the proposed thermal infrared detection method can effectively identify and track dead ducks in complex cage environments, providing a reference for automated inspection in caged duck farms.

The study investigated whether dietary methionine (Met) affects egg weight and antioxidant status through regulating gene expression of ovalbumin (OVAL), nuclear factor erythroid 2 like 2 (Nrf2) and haem oxygenase 1 (HO-1) in laying duck breeders. Longyan duck breeders (n 540, 19 weeks) were randomly assigned to six treatments with six replicates of fifteen birds each. Breeders were fed diets with six Met levels (2·00, 2·75, 3·50, 4·25, 5·00 and 5·75 g/kg) for 24 weeks. The egg weight (g), egg mass (g/d), feed conversion ratio, hatchability, 1-d duckling weight, albumen weight, albumen proportion and OVAL mRNA level improved with dietary Met levels, whereas yolk proportion decreased (P<0·05). The weight of total large yellow follicles increased linearly (P<0·001) and quadratically (P<0·05) with dietary Met concentration, and their weight relative to ovarian weight showed a linear (P<0·05) effect. Dietary Met level had a linear (P<0·05) and quadratic (P<0·001) effect on the gene expression of glutathione peroxidase (GPX1), HO-1 and Nrf2, and quadratically (P<0·05) increased contents of GPX and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in liver of duck breeders. In addition, maternal dietary Met enhanced gene expression of GPX1, HO-1 and Nrf2, increased contents of GPX and T-AOC and reduced carbonylated protein in the brains of hatchlings. Overall, dietary Met concentration affected egg weight and albumen weight in laying duck breeders, which was partly due to gene expression of OVAL in oviduct magnum. A diet containing 4·0 g Met/kg would achieve optimal hepatic GPX1 and Nrf2 expression, maximise the activity of GPX and minimise lipid peroxidation.

Duck egg production, like that of laying hens, follows a typical low–peak–low cycle, reflecting the dynamics of the reproductive system. Post-peak, some ducks undergo a cessation of egg laying, indicative of a regression process in the oviduct. Notably, the magnum, being the longest segment of the oviduct, plays a crucial role in protein secretion. Despite its significance, few studies have investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying oviduct regression in ducks that have ceased laying eggs. In this study, we conducted single-cell transcriptome sequencing on the magnum tissue of Shaoxing ducks at 467 days of age, utilizing the 10× Genomics platform. This approach allowed us to generate a detailed magnum transcriptome map of both egg-laying and ceased-laying ducks. We collected transcriptome data from 13,708 individual cells, which were then subjected to computational analysis, resulting in the identification of 27 distinct cell clusters. Marker genes were subsequently employed to categorize these clusters into specific cell types. Our analysis revealed notable heterogeneity in magnum cells between the egg-laying and ceased-laying ducks, primarily characterized by variations in cells involved in protein secretion and extracellular matrix (ECM)-producing fibroblasts. Specifically, cells engaged in protein secretion were predominantly observed in the egg-laying ducks, indicative of their role in functional albumen deposition within the magnum, a phenomenon not observed in the ceased-laying ducks. Moreover, the proportion of THY1+ cells within the ECM-producing fibroblasts was found to be significantly higher in the egg-laying ducks (59%) compared to the ceased-laying ducks (24%). Similarly, TIMP4+ fibroblasts constituted a greater proportion of the ECM-producing fibroblasts in the egg-laying ducks (83%) compared to the ceased-laying ducks (58%). These findings suggest a potential correlation between the expression of THY1 and TIMP4 in ECM-producing fibroblasts and oviduct activity during functional reproduction. Our study provides valuable single-cell insights that warrant further investigation into the biological implications of fibroblast subsets in the degeneration of the reproductive tract. Moreover, these insights hold promise for enhancing the production efficiency of laying ducks.

Duck is one of the poultry commodities. It produces meat and eggs, which is beneficial to satisfy the needs for animal protein and economic value in increasing family income. Meanwhile, conch can increase the productivity of duck eggs, and it is a relatively cheap source of feed, and widely available in Lake Tondano. The research aims to describe the laying ducks farming and analyze the advantages of laying ducks farming surrounding Lake Tondano, North Sulawesi. The research was conducted in April-June 2023. It used a purposive sampling method to determine the respondents. The general raising system was the same, such as grazing, but it had differences in capital, production costs, revenue, and profits between farmers. The 1 st type of laying ducks farming using ready-laying ducks was more profitable (R/C = 1.59) than the 2 nd type of laying ducks farming using day-old-ducks (R/C = 1.48). However, this benefit would be greater if the expensed labor was waived.