Successful Identification of Duck Genome Region Determining Desirable Uniformity of Meat Performance Traits

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to identify genome regions determining duck meat performance traits with possible small variation. In total, 368 crossbred ducks of F2 generation obtained from two parental lines: Pekin-type ducks of Polish origin (A55) and Pekin-type ducks of French origin (GL-30) were recorded. The following seven traits were analyzed: body weight, breast muscle weight, leg muscle weight, water holding capacity in the breast and leg muscles, and color lightness L* of the breast and leg muscles. All birds (including parental and F1 generations) were genotyped (29 microsatellite markers). Means and coefficients of variation (CV) were calculated for 28 full-sibs (four sires by six dams and one sire by four dams). Number of progeny per full-sib group ranged from 7 to 17. The multivariate cluster analysis using grouping by k-means algorithm was used on transformed data. The multivariate cluster analysis gave two clusters: first group with 10 full-sibs and second one with 18 families. Differences among half-sibs in the CV of the recorded traits were determined. It should be noted that one out of five sire groups showed statistically significant differences from the other ones. Moreover, the CVs in this group were smaller. The analysis of microsatellite markers indicated three alleles from three loci were present only in the “superior” sire group. The obtained results indicate a promising opportunity of effective selection for improving carcass technological quality using molecular markers.