Journal of critical reviews 303 Journal of Critical Reviews ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 11, 2020 HEMATOLOGICAL PROFILE, CARCASS EVALUATION AND SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS OF PEKIN DUCKSFED WITH INDIGENOUS FEEDSTUFFS SUPPLEMENTED WITH DIFFERENT ORGANIC INOCULANTS Freddie O. Libatique Isabela State University, Echague, Isabela, Philippines Received: 16.03.2020 Revised: 21.04.2020 Accepted: 15.05.2020 Abstract This research was conducted to determine the impact of feeding indigenous feedstuffs (IF) supplemented with various organic inoculants as water additives on the hematological profile, carcass assessment and sensory characteristics of 120 pekin ducklings for 6 weeks of rearing under a free-ranged management system; Treatments were T1 (control) IF + pure drinking water: T2- IF + Amino Acid (AA) Plus: T3- IF + Effective Microorganism (EM) and T4- IF + Carrageenan (Ca). All the data gathered were recorded, tabulated and analyzed using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The ANOVA revealed a not significant (P>0.05) result in terms of red blood cell count and packed cell volume. The result of the study showed, all the ducks were under the normal values which were 40.24±4.21 cells/μL. and 36±1.5%, respectively. This is an indication that the experimental animals were not suffering from anemia and other related sickness. Likewise, the organic inoculants did not affect the carcass quality of the animals. Moreover, ANOVA revealed a not significant result on the sensory evaluation as to general appearance, aroma, flavor, tenderness and juiciness of oven-cooked meat of pekin ducks and had scores of 6 which falls under the adjective rating of “Like Very Much“. Keywords: haematological profile, sensory characteristic, organic inoculant, indigenous feedstuff, pekin ducks © 2020 by Advance Scientific Research. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.11.50 INTRODUCTION One of the foremost problems of the duck industry is the source of feeds which accounts for 72% of the total costs of production. Ducks are known for being voracious and wasteful animals of which marginal farmers find difficulties to meet the nutrient requirements of these animals for their maximum growth potentials. On the other hand, some farmers are taking advantage of the characteristics of ducks. An animal which consumes large quantities of feeds, grows rapidly and has a heavier body weight. For that reason, in order to minimize the feed cost, it is very imperative to modify the feeds offered and the feeding system imposed so as to generate more income from it. It is very crucial therefore, to use the readily available feed resources in the locality without knowing its effect on the animal, the financial constraints and the ecosystem. The use of indigenous feedstuffs which are abundantly available in the locality, aside from being cheap source of proteins and energy, are recognized as an organic in nature, however, this must be supplemented with some organic growth enhancer, either as water additives or feed additives to obtain the optimum carcass yield. This study will benefit poultry raisers especially duck growers because they would be given options to lower down their production cost through the use of alternative protein sources for feeds. Likewise, the consumers prefer these ducks because it is grown organically. With these, the use of indigenous feedstuffs supplemented with different organic inoculants must be verified if what treatment could significantly affect the hematological profile, carcass quality and sensory characteristics of ranged pekin ducks. Objectives of the Study Generally, the study was conducted to determine the hematological profile and sensory characteristics of pekin ducks fed with indigenous feedstuffs supplemented with different organic inoculants under a free-ranged management system. Specifically, it aimed to: 1. evaluate the health status in terms of hematological profile (red blood cell count and packed cell volume) of the different treatments; 2. find out what organic inoculant significantly affects the meat quality attributes; and 3. assess the acceptability of using indigenous feedstuffs supplemented with different organic inoculants in terms of general appearance, aroma, flavor, juiciness and tenderness. LITERATURE REVIEW Froilan E. Pacris, Jr. (2018), evaluated the performance of pekin duck fed with moringa oleifera leaf meal. He found out that pekin ducks fed with 50% MOLM substitution from soybean oil meal had the highest red blood cell count and packed cell volume, however, all the treatments were under the normal values or reference. Froilan E. Pacris, Jr. (2018 ) investigated the yield of carcasses and pekin duck meat quality (Anas platyrhynchos) fed with moringa oleifera leaf meal as a substitute for soybean oil meal using a mixed farming approach. He discovered that the moringa oleifera leaf meal had no impact on the pekin ducks' carcass yield and carcass quality. R. Mathivanan, S.C. Edwin (2012), assessed the hematological and biochemical serum parameters of broilers fed with Andrographis paniculata as an alternative to promoting antibiotic growth. They discovered that the number of red blood cells and the volume of packed cells did not vary between treatments, and all fell below normal values.