Genetic Parameters of Body Weight from an Exotic Line of Duck in Vietnam

The V1 duck is a grandparent line of Cherry Valley Super Meat Duck which was bred in England. The V1 duck was imported to Vietnam Institute of Animal Husbandry in 1991 and used for selection experiments. A total of 1040 records of V1 duck raised in Vietnam were used to estimate genetic parameters and the genetic trend of body weight. Body weight at 8 and 24 weeks (BW 8 and BW 24) were measured through 4 generations. Best linear unbiased prediction method with an animal model and restricted maximum likelihood were applied to estimate breeding values and heritabilities, respectively. Means of BW 8 and BW 24 were 2, 202 and 3, 297 g for male and 2, 168 and 3.071g for female. Estimated heritabilities were 0.104 for BW 8 and 0.128 for BW 24, respectively. Genetic trends were not significant for either BW 8 or BW 24.