Correlation Analysis of Body Weight with Breast Intramuscular Fat and Carcass Traits in the Pekin Duck Z_2 Stain at Six-Week Age

The weight, carcass traits and breast intramuscular fat of 100 male and female ducks were measured at six weeks of age to analyze the correlation between the body weight trait and carcass traits and breast intramuscular fat(IMF) in Z2 stain Pekin duck. The results showed that the body weight at six week age had significantly positive correlation with breast IMF in male ducks, with correlation coefficient of 0.56(P0.01). While both male and female ducks showed significant corre- lation between body weight and carcass traits such as carcass weight, eviscerated weight, breast muscle weight, breast muscle rate, subcutaneous fat weight and subcutaneous fat weight rate(P0.01). It indicated that the correlation coefficients of body weight trait with carcass traits and breast IMF were various between male and female in Pekin duck Z2 strain. It was neces- sary to establish different breeding projects for different genders in the Pekin duck breeding process to accelerate the breeding process and avoid the declining of breast intramuscular fat content.