Domestic duck

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Domestic mallard
Khaki Campbell female.jpg
Khaki Campbell duck
Domesticated
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Genus: Anas
Species:
Subspecies:
A. p. domesticus
Trinomial name
Anas platyrhynchos domesticus
Linnaeus, 1758

Domestic Muscovy
MuscovyDuck.jpg
Domestic Muscovy
Domesticated
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Genus: Cairina
Species:
Fleming, 1822
Subspecies:
C. m. domestica
Trinomial name
Cairina moschata domestica
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Domestic ducks (mainly mallard, Anas platyrhynchos domesticus, with some Muscovy ducks, Cairina moschata domestica) are ducks that have been domesticated and raised for meat and eggs. A few are kept for show, or for their ornamental value. Most varieties of domesticated ducks, apart from the Muscovy duck and hybrids, are descended from the mallard, which was domesticated in China around 2000 BC.

Contents

Duck farming is simplified by their reliable flocking behaviour, and their ability to forage effectively for themselves. Over 80% of global duck production is in China. Breeds such as White Pekin are raised for meat, while the prolific Indian Runner can produce over 300 eggs per year. In East and Southeast Asia, polycultures such as rice-duck farming are widely practised: the ducks assist the rice with manure and by eating small pest animals, so that the same land produces rice and ducks at once.

In culture, ducks feature in children's stories such as The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck , and in Sergei Prokofiev's musical composition Peter and the Wolf ; they have appeared in art since the time of ancient Egypt, where they served as a fertility symbol.

Origins

Domestication

Domestic ducks appear from whole-genome sequencing to have originated from a single domestication event of mallards during the Neolithic, followed by rapid selection for lineages favouring meat or egg production. They were probably domesticated in Southern China around 2000 BC [1] [2]   by the rice paddy-farming ancestors of modern Southeast Asians  and spread outwards from that region. There are few archaeological records, so the date of domestication is unknown; the earliest written records are in Han Chinese writings from central China dating to about 500 BC. Duck farming for both meat and eggs is a widespread and ancient industry in Southeast Asia. [1]

Wild ducks were hunted extensively in Egypt and other parts of the world in ancient times, but were not domesticated. Ducks are documented in Ancient Rome from the second century BC, but descriptions – such as by Columella – suggest that ducks in Roman agriculture were captured in the wild, not domesticated; there was no duck breeding in Roman times, so eggs from wild ducks were needed to start duck farms. [3]

Origins of breeds

Most breeds and varieties of domestic duck derive from the mallard, Anas platyrhynchos; a few derive from Cairina moschata , the Muscovy duck, or are mulards, hybrids of these with A. platyrhynchos stock. [2] Domestication has greatly altered their characteristics. Domestic ducks are mostly promiscuous, where wild mallards are monogamous. Domestic ducks have lost the mallard's territorial behaviour, and are less aggressive than mallards. [4] [5] Despite these differences, domestic ducks frequently mate with wild mallard, producing fully fertile hybrid offspring. [6] A wild mallard weighs some 1.1 kg (2.4 lb), but large breeds like the Aylesbury may weigh 4.6 kg (10 lb) (and hybrids even more), while small breeds like the Appleyard may be only 0.7 kg (1.5 lb). Those breeds are raised for meat and eggs, [2] while other breeds are purely ornamental, having been selected for their crests, tufts, or striking plumage, for exhibition in competitions. [7]

A phylogenomic analysis found that Indian breeds of ducks formed a cluster that was sister to the White Pekin duck (a breed derived from ducks domesticated in China), while Muscovy ducks are from another genus. [8]

Phylogeny of some breeds of duck [8]
part of  Anatidae

Muscovy duck

Cairina moschata
Mallard

White Pekin

Assam duck

Other Indian breeds (Kuttanad, Keeri, Sanyasi)

Anas platyrhynchos

Farming

Husbandry

Ducks have been farmed for thousands of years. [10] They are reared principally for meat, but also for duck eggs. [11] :258 Duck husbandry is simplified by aspects of their behaviour, including reliable flocking and the ability to forage effectively for themselves in wetlands and water bodies. [10]

Most breeds of duck may lay some 200 eggs per year, [11] :258 though the Indian Runner may produce over 300 eggs annually. [2] The females of many breeds of domestic duck are unreliable at sitting their eggs and raising their young. Exceptions include the Rouen duck and especially the Muscovy duck. It has been a custom on farms for centuries to put duck eggs under broody hens for hatching; nowadays this role is often played by an incubator. However, young ducklings rely on their mothers for a supply of preen oil to make them waterproof; a chicken does not make as much preen oil as a duck, and an incubator makes none. Once the duckling grows its own feathers, it produces preen oil from the sebaceous gland near the base of its tail. [12]

Systems

Ducks with free access to rice paddies in Bali, Indonesia provide additional income and manure the fields, reducing the need for fertilizer. Ducks (6337601928).jpg
Ducks with free access to rice paddies in Bali, Indonesia provide additional income and manure the fields, reducing the need for fertilizer.

In East and Southeast Asia, rice-duck farming is widely practised. This polyculture yields both rice and ducks from the same land; the ducks eat small pest animals in the crop; they stir the water, limiting weeds, and manure the rice. Other rice polycultures in the region include rice-fish-duck and rice-fish-duck-azolla systems, where fish further manure the rice and help to control pests. [13] [14]

Pests and diseases

A freshwater shrimp with an acanthocephalan (orange) in its body cavity. Ducks eat the shrimps and become infected with the parasites. IMGP7610-Hyalella azteca with acanthocephalan in body cavity!.jpg
A freshwater shrimp with an acanthocephalan (orange) in its body cavity. Ducks eat the shrimps and become infected with the parasites.

Domestic ducks have the advantage over other poultry of being strongly resistant to many bird diseases, including such serious conditions as duck plague (viral enteritis). [10] They are however susceptible to the dangerous H5N1 strain of avian influenza. [15] Ducks are subject to ectoparasites such as lice and endoparasites such as trematodes, cestodes, [16] and acanthocephalans. A high parasitic load can result in a substantial reduction in the ducks' growth rate. [17]

Production

In 2021 approximately 4.3 billion ducks were slaughtered for meat worldwide, for a total yield of about 6.2 million tonnes; [18] over 80% of this production was in China, where more than 3.6 billion ducks were killed, yielding some 4.9 million tonnes of meat. [19] Worldwide production of duck meat was substantially lower than that of chicken – 73.8 billion birds slaughtered, 121.6 million tonnes – but considerably greater than that of goose – about 750 million birds killed for 4.4 million tonnes of meat. [18] Feathers are a by-product of duck farming. [20]

As food

Meat

Since ancient times, the duck has been eaten as food. [21] Usually only the breast and thigh meat is eaten. [22] It does not need to be hung before preparation, and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavoured with bitter orange or with port. [23] Peking duck is a dish of roast duck from Beijing, China, that has been prepared since medieval times. It is today traditionally served with spring pancakes, spring onions and sweet bean sauce. [24] [25]

Eggs and other products

In France, ducks are used for the production of foie gras de canard . [11] :311 In some cultures the blood of ducks slaughtered for meat is used as food; it may be eaten seasoned and lightly cooked, as in Ireland, [26] :392 or be used as an ingredient, as in a number of regional types of blood soup, among them the czarnina of Poland [27] :299 and the tiết canh of Vietnam. [20]

Duck eggs are eaten mainly in Asian countries such as China; [11] :258 in the Philippines, balut – a fertilised duck egg at about 17 days of development, boiled and eaten with salt – is considered a delicacy and is sold as street food. [11] :53

In culture

For children

One of Beatrix Potter's illustrations for The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, 1908 Jemima1.jpg
One of Beatrix Potter's illustrations for The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck , 1908

The domestic duck has appeared numerous times in children's stories. Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck was published by Frederick Warne & Co in 1908. One of Potter's best-known books, the tale was included in the Royal Ballet's The Tales of Beatrix Potter. [28] It is the story of how Jemima, a domestic duck, is saved from a cunning fox who plans to kill her, when she tries to find a safe place for her eggs to hatch. [29] The Story About Ping is a 1933 American children's book by Marjorie Flack, illustrated by Kurt Wiese, about a domestic duck lost on the Yangtze River. [30] Make Way for Ducklings , a 1941 children's picture book by Robert McCloskey, tells the story of a pair of mallards who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden. It won the 1942 Caldecott Medal for its illustrations. [31] The Disney cartoon character Donald Duck, one of the world's most recognizable pop culture icons, is a domestic duck of the American Pekin breed. [32]

The domestic duck features in the musical composition Peter and the Wolf , written by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. [33] The orchestra illustrates the children's story while the narrator tells it. [34] In this, a domestic duck and a little bird argue on each other's flight capabilities. The duck is represented by the oboe. The story ends with the wolf eating the duck alive, its quack heard from inside the wolf's belly. [35]

The duck theme in Peter and the Wolf : Oboe
Domestic duck

In art and folk culture

Domestic ducks are featured in a range of ancient artefacts, which revealed that they were a fertility symbol. [36]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poultry</span> Domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, meat, or feathers

Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of harvesting animal products such as meat, eggs or feathers. The practice of raising poultry is known as poultry farming. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes. The term also includes waterfowls of the family Anatidae but does not include wild birds hunted for food known as game or quarry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duck</span> Common name for many species of bird

Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form taxon; they do not represent a monophyletic group, since swans and geese are not considered ducks. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foie gras</span> French culinary dish

Foie gras ; French:[fwaɡʁɑ], ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a duck or goose. According to French law, foie gras is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by gavage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mallard</span> Species of duck

The mallard or wild duck is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. Males (drakes) have green heads, while the females (hens) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent purple or blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.7–1.6 kg (1.5–3.5 lb). Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aylesbury duck</span> Breed of domesticated duck, bred mainly for its meat and appearance

The Aylesbury duck is a breed of domesticated duck, bred mainly for its meat and appearance. It is a large duck with pure white plumage, a pink bill, orange legs and feet, an unusually large keel, and a horizontal stance with its body parallel to the ground. The precise origins of the breed are unclear, but raising white ducks became popular in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, in the 18th century owing to the demand for white feathers as a filler for quilts. Over the 19th century selective breeding for size, shape and colour led to the Aylesbury duck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muscovy duck</span> Species of bird

The Muscovy duck is a duck native to the Americas, from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Mexico south to Argentina and Uruguay. Feral Muscovy ducks are found in New Zealand, Australia, and in Central and Eastern Europe. Small wild and feral breeding populations have also established themselves in the United States, particularly in Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, the Big Island of Hawaii, as well as in many other parts of North America, including southern Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific black duck</span> Species of bird

The Pacific black duck is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the north and French Polynesia in the east. It is usually called the grey duck in New Zealand, where it is also known by its Maori name, pārera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duck as food</span> Meat from duck

In cooking and gastronomy, duck or duckling is the meat of several species of bird in the family Anatidae, found in both fresh and salt water. Duck is eaten in many cuisines around the world. It is a high-fat, high-protein meat rich in iron. Duckling nominally comes from a juvenile animal, but may be simply a menu name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Pekin</span> American breed of domestic duck

The Pekin or White Pekin is an American breed of domestic duck, raised primarily for meat. It derives from birds brought to the United States from China in the nineteenth century, and is now bred in many parts of the world. It is often known as the American Pekin to distinguish it from the German Pekin, a distinct and separate breed which derives from the same Chinese stock but has different breeding. Many of these ducks were reared on Long Island, New York, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from which the breed derived its name Long Island Duck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Runner duck</span> Breed of duck

Indian Runners are a breed of Anas platyrhynchos domesticus, the domestic duck. They stand erect like penguins and, rather than waddling, they run. The females can lay as many as 300 to 350 eggs a year. They were bred on the Indonesian islands of Lombok, Java and Bali. These ducks do not fly and only rarely form nests and incubate their own eggs. They run or walk, often dropping their eggs wherever they happen to be. The breed arrived in the Western world in the 19th century; they have since been bred to have a wide variety of colours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khaki Campbell</span> Breed of duck

The Campbell is a British breed of domestic duck. It was developed at Uley, in Gloucestershire, England, at the turn of the 20th century; being introduced to the public in 1898 and the Khaki variety in 1901.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cayuga duck</span> American breed of domestic duck

The Cayuga is an American breed of domestic duck. It was introduced to the Finger Lakes region of New York State in about 1840, and is named for the Cayuga people of that area. Until the last years of the nineteenth century it was the principal duck reared for meat in the United States. In the twenty-first century it is kept mainly for ornament. The plumage is black with iridescent beetle-green lights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rouen duck</span> Breed of domesticated duck

The Rouen is a heavyweight breed of domesticated duck. Rouens are raised primarily for meat, exhibition, or as general purpose ducks. Since they are not prolific egg layers, Rouen ducks are most commonly bred for their meat. The breed originated in France sometime before the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crested (duck breed)</span> Breed of domestic duck

The Crested is a breed of domestic duck, characterised by a crest or tuft of feathers on the head. Ducks of this kind were probably brought from the East Indies to Europe by Dutch ships. The duck may be of any colour; the crest results from the action of an autosomal dominant gene and varies widely in size, from imperceptibly small to a diameter of approximately 13 cm.

The Bali Duck is a lightweight breed of domesticated duck raised primarily for decoration or as pets, although they are good layers. It is similar to the Indian Runner Duck, differing only in having a crest on the top of the head.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saxony duck</span> Breed of domestic duck

The Saxony duck is a German breed of domestic duck. It was bred in Saxony in the 1930s, but because of the Second World War was recognised only in 1957.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domestic Muscovy duck</span> Subspecies of bird

The Muscovy or Barbary is the domesticated form of the wild Muscovy duck, Cairina moschata. There are a number of local or regional breeds, and drakes of these are commonly cross-bred with domestic ducks to produce the hybrids called mulards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mulard</span> Hybrid duck

The mulard is a hybrid between two different genera of domestic duck: the domestic Muscovy duck and the domestic duck, derived from the wild mallard. American Pekins and other domestic ducks are most commonly used to breed mulards due to the breed's high meat production. Like many interspecific F1 hybrids, mulards are sterile, giving them the nickname mule ducks. While it is possible to produce mulards naturally, artificial insemination is used more often with greater success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Pekin</span> German breed of duck

The German Pekin, German: Deutsche Pekingente, is a European breed of domestic duck. It is commonly called simply Pekin or White Pekin. It is a different breed from the American Pekin, which is also commonly known by the same names. It was bred in Europe from birds originating in China and Japan and is distributed in many European countries.

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