Dietary feeding of turmeric (Curcuma longa) powder on growth performance and carcass quality of Duck

The demand for duck meat has been increased recently due to its healthy safety to eat. Duck meat has high nutritional value with unique aroma and taste. It is possible to produce quality and safe duck meat to satisfy consumer requirements. During duck farming, the bird-flu is normally occurred so farmers commonly use antibiotic to cure. However, drug abuse causes food safety concerns. Consumers prefer to green and healthy duck meat originated from fattening but free from antibiotic residue. Yellow bioactive substances in the rhizomes of turmeric (Curcuma longa) are curcumin, demethoxy curcumin and bisdemethoxy curcumin responsible for various biological activities. Turmeric powder can be utilized as a potential substitute for infeed antibiotics in livestock diet. Our research attempted to evaluate the dietary feeding of turmeric (Curcuma longa) powder (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0%) on growth performance and meat quality of duck. Different parameters of growth performance (feed conversion ratio, weight gain, feed intake, mortality) and carcass quality (dressing percentage, giblet percentage, overall acceptance) of duck were examined after 120 days of rearing under a semi-extensive system. Our research revealed that the dietary supplementation of 2.5% turmeric powder can act as a natural antibiotic to support growth promotion and enhance carcass quality of duck.