THE GENETICALLY superior breeder duck called itik Pinas (IP) was developed in a project conducted by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD).
The project is in partnership with the National Swine and Poultry Research and Development Center of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI-NSPRDC), where the IP is a product of continuous selection and breeding of the traditional Pateros duck.
Itik Pinas is an offshoot of the DOST-PCAARRD’s Industry Strategic S&T Program (ISP) on Duck, which aims to address the low and inconsistent egg production performance and product quality of the “mongrel” ducks as an effect of long term indiscriminate breeding practices of the duck industry.
Compared with traditional ducks, the DOST-PCAARRD says Itik Pinas produces more eggs of up to 55 pieces per duck per year over that of the traditional mongrel ducks.
IP eggs are likewise consistent in terms of egg weight with at least 80 percent of egg produced weigh 65 grams or more.
The IP has three strains – two of which are purelines known as IP-Itim and IP-Khaki, and one commercial hybrid line known as IP-Kayumanggi.
In support for the development of IP, a project on feeds and feeding systems to establish the nutrient requirement and suggested feed formulation for starter, grower, and layer is being conducted.
While IP performance testing in Regions 2, 3, 4A, 6, 9, 11, and 12 and development of product standards for balut and salted eggs started to gear up in 2017.
With this development, the municipality of Libertad in Antique is opting to become the “balut-making” capital in the province after the Region-6 office of the Department of Agriculture (DA-6) recently turned over some 1,800 heads of ducks to the members of Sitio San Juan Farmers Association in Barangay San Roque.
According to DA-6 Regional Executive Director Remelyn Recoter, farmers in Northern Antique have sufficient sources of poultry feeds, making Libertad to become among the pilot beneficiaries of the Itik-Pinas project in the region.
The first batch of farmer-beneficiaries who received 60 ducks each will return the same number of heads to the association, which will then be given to the next identified recipients, said DA Livestock Program Coordinator Glenn Mariano.
“This Itik Pinas is a breeder strain developed through a joint research project of the DOST-PCAARRD and the BAI-NSPRDC in Tiaong, Quezon,” he said.
Presently, there are at least five committed private entrepreneurs engaged in the production, multiplication and distribution on pre-arranged transactions of Itik Pinas from Quezon, Laguna, Batangas, and Nueva Ecija together with BAI-NSPRDC.
In Regions 3 and 4A where Itik Pinas was introduced, average egg production increased from 55 to 70 percent, where the consistency in egg quality in terms of weight was also recorded.
The project likewise observed sexual dimorphism in terms of plumage color in IP-Kayumanggi ducklings. This condition is advantageous to duck breeders, eliminating sex identification at day-old, in effect, reducing the cost of labor and day-old duckling mortality./PN
