Relationship between Some Blood Biochemical Parameters and Fatty Liver Weight in Force Feeding of Mule Ducks

GERZILOV, V. and P. PETROV. Relationship between some blood biochemical parameters and fatty liver weight in force feeding of mule ducks. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 21: 1039–1043 The purpose of this study was to determine the phenotype correlation between fatty liver weight (FLW) and some blood serum biochemical parameters in mule ducks – alanine aminotransferase (ALAT), aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT), total cholesterol (Chol), alkaline phosphatase (AP), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), triglycerides (TG) and creatinine (Creat), and their possible role as predictors of the fatty liver yield. The birds were fattened and slaughtered under commercial conditions. The gavage of ducks with maize began at 74 days of age and continued for 13 days.At the time of flock slaughtering (total number of ducks − 620 from both sexes) blood samples were randomly collected from 25 male and 21 female mule ducks. FLW was measured individually by analytical scales (accuracy 0.01 g). We established positive phenotypic correlations between the FLW and some blood serum parameters for male and female mule ducks as followed: ALAT – rp = 0.475 (P < 0.01) and rp = 0.626 (P < 0.001); ASAT – rp = 0.495 (P < 0.01) and rp = 0.547 (P < 0.01); Chol – rp = 0.649 (P < 0.001) and rp = 0.564 (P < 0.001). The phenotype correlations between FLW and the other biochemical parameters (АP, GGT, TG and Creat) were weak and insignificant. A strong positive correlation between preslaughter live body weight and FLW was established for female mule ducks – rp=0.808 (P < 0.001), while for male mule ducks it was weak – rp = 0.114 (P > 0.05).