Effects of licorice aqueous extract on the productive characteristics of Chinese ducks

This study was conducted at a private field for duck breeding in Al-Muthanna Governorate from 12/14/2021 to 02/14/2022. The field experiment was included to study the effect of adding an aqueous extract of licorice to drinking water on the productive performance of Chinese ducks. A total of 60 unsexed, one-day Chinese duck chicks were used, prepared from one of the hatcheries in Al-Qadisiyah Governorate, were randomly distributed to 4 treatments, included 3 replicates (5 chicks each replicate), the treatments were as follows: T1: control treatment. T2, T3 and T4 were 5, 10 and 15 ml aqueous extract of licorice /liter of drinking water. The results show that there was a significant improvement in all the studied productive traits (body weight, weight gain, feed intake, food conversion) at the treatment of licorice aqueous extract in drinking water, in addition to the high level of licorice aqueous extract (15 ml of licorice per each liter of drinking water), which gave the best results and significantly. Keywords: licorice aqueous extract, productive traits, Chinese ducks.