Characterisation of Morphological Traits of Indigenous Duck Populations in Three Agro-Ecological Zones of Ghana

Abstract

The study characterised the indigenous duck populations in three agro- ecological zones of Ghana using a primary characterisation approach involving observation and direct body measurement. Qualitative and quantitative trait data were randomly collected on 414 mature ducks, whereas data on demographic information of duck keepers were taken using a semi- structured questionnaire. The results indicated a variation in qualitative traits with plumage colour recording variants of Black and white (41.30%), Black (31.90%) and white (26.80%). The bill, bean, caruncle, shank, web, skin and eye also saw colour variations. It was observed that ducks across all agro- ecological zones laid eggs with cream shell colour. All morphometric traits were significantly influenced (P<0.05) by sex. Drakes were significantly superior (P<0.05) to ducks in the measured morphometric traits. A medium to high (0.593-0.945) positive correlation was observed among morphometric traits, with body length (0.894) as the best predictor of body weight. The discriminant analysis accurately classified 61.40% of ducks into their respective populations with cross-validation. The Mahalanobis distance was longer (2.266) between the semi-deciduous and the rainforest duck population. The PCA had higher loadings on body weight (0.965), suggesting body weight as the trait with the highest discriminatory power among the morphometric traits. The lower rate of inbreeding (0.002) implies that the indigenous duck populations run less risk of inbreeding depression. However, the lower effective population size of 782.83 affirms that indigenous ducks are endangered. Survivability should be a trait of high priority in future breeding programmes since farmers extremely prefer it.