Abstract: 【Objective】As a typical meat duck variety in China, the amount of Peking Duck is increasing year by year, but there is no standardized lighting parameters for Peking Ducks at present. This trial was conducted to investigate the effects of lighting regimes on production performance, carcass performance and anti-oxidant capacity of the blood in Peking Ducks, aiming to provide a reliable theoretical basis for practical production of Peking Ducks. 【Method】Through single factor randomized block design in this experiment, three hundred and twenty 1-day-old Peking Ducks were randomly divided into 5 treatments, each treatment included 4 replicate groups with 16 ducks per group (half were male). All ducks were exposed to 5 different lighting regimes treatments: intermittent lighting (INT L), increasing lighting (INC L), short-time lighting (ST L), decreasing lighting (DEC L), and continuous lighting (CON L). The lighting intensity was 5 lx, and incandescent lamp was used as lighting source conformably. Feed consumption and body weight gain of 1-2 w, 3-5 w, 6 w and 1-6 w were recorded, and the average feed intake (AFI), average body weight gain (ABWG), feed-weight ratio (F/B) of different stages were calculated. At the end of 6 weeks, six Peking Ducks (half were male) were selected randomly from replicate groups, and those ducks were weighed and slaughtered to determine carcass traits, including dressing percentage, eviscerated percentage, breast muscle percentage, thigh meat percentage and abdominal fat percentage; Blood samples were collected from the bottom wing of four Peking Ducks (half were male) in every replicate groups. Blood samples were centrifuged promptly to determine the levels of Mel, MDA, GSH-Px and the activity of T-SOD. 【Result】The results were shown as follows: For the whole growth stage (1-6 w), lighting regimes had no significant effect on AFI, ABWG and F/B (P＞0.05). During brooding period (1-2 w), the AFI and ABWG of ST L groups were significantly lower than INT L, DEC L and CON L groups. The FI of INC L group was obviously lower than INT L and DEC L groups, while the F/B was significantly higher than other groups. Lighting regimes had no significant effects on Peking Ducks’ performance during the growth (3-5 w) and fattening period (1-2 w) (P＞0.05). Carcass traits (P＞0.05), including dressing percentage, breast muscle percentage, thigh meat percentage and abdominal fat percentage weren’t affected by lighting regimes. However, the eviscerated percentage of CON L groups was significantly lower than other groups. There were no obvious difference in the levels of Mel, MDA and GSH-Px. The activity of T-SOD of ST L group was much lower than INT L, DEC L and CON L groups, and INC L group had lower T-SOD activity than DEC L group. 【Conclusion】 Although short-time lighting has no beneficial effect on AFI and ABWG in brooding period, it doesn’t affect the final slaughter weight of Peking ducks. The Increasing Lighting can improve the AFI in brooding period. Short-time lighting and increasing lighting decreased the activity of T-SOD and were adverse to improve anti-oxidant capacity of Peking Ducks. Besides, 24 h continuous lighting decreased the eviscerated percentage and meat production rate.

Key words: Peking Ducks, lighting regimes, production performance, carcass performance, anti-oxidant capacity