Interested in raising ducks? Actor and DOST-PCAARRD Agri-Aqua ambassador Marvin Agustin gave information on how a duck’s sex can be determined.
He started out by first sharing how to figure it out the old way, through a short video on his Instagram page yesterday, May 31.
“Alam n’yo ba na may proseso para malaman ang sex ng itik? Ito ‘yung tinatawag na vent sexing kung saan mano-manong tinitingnan ang puwetan nito para malaman kung babae o lalaki,” he said in the video. (Do you know that there is a process to know the gender of a duck? This is called vent sexing, where manually, a duck’s body is inspected to see if it is a female or a male.)
But this process is not only time-consuming, it is also expensive. Agustin shared that with a new process, the group ItikPINAS has solved the problem. The group breeds Philippine Mallard duck also called Itik PINAS.
Dr. Synan Baguio, livestock research division director of DOST-PCAARRD, explained in the video how the new sex determination process works.
“Ang vent sexing ay hindi na po natin kailangan lalo na sa ItikPINAS or IP Kayumanggi dahil ang mga ducks na ito ay mayroong characteristic na tinatawag natin na sexual dimorphism in color,” he said. (We do not need vent sexing anymore, more so for ItikPINAS or IP Kayumanggi, because the ducks have a characteristic which we call sexual dimorphism in color.)
“Ibig sabihin, pagkapisa at day old, magkakaiba po ‘yung kulay ng lalaki at saka babae. Ninety nine percent noong mga sisiw na kulay brown ay babae. ‘Yun namang itim, 99% ay lalaki,” he added. (That means, upon birth, at just a day old, the colors are different between male and female. Ninety nine percent of the brown chicks are female. The black ones are 99% male.)
“Ang galing. Dahil sa purified native duck na ItikPINAS, dumadali at hindi nagiging magastos ang proseso,” Agustin said. (It’s great. Because with purified native ducks ItikPINAS, the process is faster and not expensive.)
Aside from being a DOST ambassador, Agustin is also an entrepreneur who owns a chain of restaurants in the country. JB
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