Influence of in-ovo administration with vitamin E and ascorbic acid on the performance of Muscovy ducks

Nutrient administration in-ovo could be considered as an alternative method to improve hatchability and duckling weights followed by better economic performance. On the 12th day of incubation, fertile duck eggs (n= 500) were distributed into 5 groups: uninjected control; 0.1 ml corn oil; 0.1 ml corn oil plus 10 mg vitamin E; 0.1 ml saline; and 0.1 ml saline plus 3 mg ascorbic acid. In-ovo injection of vitamin E but not ascorbic acid resulted in higher hatchability percentage compared to the uninjected control; however this was not statistically confirmed. In-ovo injection of either vitamin E or ascorbic acid resulted in significantly (P 0.05) higher body weights at hatch, final body weights, and feed intakes than the uninjected control group. However, both male and female ducklings hatched from eggs injected with either vitamin E or ascorbic acid had better feed conversion during the starting period only. The carcass characteristics and relative lymphoid organ weights did not differ (P 0.05) between the in ovo injected groups and the uninjected controls. In-ovo injection of either vitamin E or ascorbic acid resulted in significant increase (P 0.05) in the geometric mean of the 1st antibodies titers of males and the 1st and 2nd antibodies titers of females compared to the uninjected control. It could be concluded that in-ovo injection of vitamin E and ascorbic acid improve the embryonic and post-hatch growth of Muscovy ducks.