Artificial Insemination vs Natural Mating and Genetic PRL/PstI Locus Polymorphism and Their Effect on Different Productive and Reproductive Aspects in Duck

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of artificial insemination (AI) versus natural mating and genetic PRL/PstI locus polymorphism on different duck productive and reproductive aspects. The birds were divided into two groups; 5000 female for each group and the data (body weight of birds, hatchability%, fertility %, mortality %, hatching egg % and birth weight of day old chick) were analyzed using PROC MIXED procedure of SAS V9. Concerning PRL/PstI locus polymorphism, blood samples were collected from the experimental birds for DNA extraction and PCR-PstI digestion for a fragment of exon 5 (400-bp) of PRL gene was carried out. AI breeding group had significantly higher productive and reproductive parameters (average egg number, birth weight of day-old chick, fertility and hatchability %) compared to the natural mating group except for mortality %. PCR-PstI of 400-bp of PRL gene revealed two fragments (254 and 146-bp) for genotype TT, three fragments (400, 254 and 146-bp) for genotype TC and undigested fragment (400-bp) for genotype CC. The χ2-test showed that the genotype distributions in the duck population were in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (P<0.05). Statistical analysis revealed a significant association between PRL genotypes and the studied traits; where CC genotype was higher than both TC and TT genotypes in these traits. This research highlights the artificial insemination, natural mating, and PRL/PstI locus as candidates for different duck productive and reproductive traits.