Abstract: 【Objective】 The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effects of dietary apparent metabolizable energy (AME) level on growth performance,slaughter performance and plasma biochemical indices of Sansui ducks aged 1 to 28 days,and to estimate AME requirement based on regression model.【Method】 A total of 336 healthy one-day-old Sansui male ducks were divided into 6 groups with 7 replicates per group and 8 ducks per replicate.Ducks were fed corn-soybean meal diets with AME of 10.92,11.38,11.80,12.26,12.68 and 13.14 MJ/kg,respectively.The experiment period was 28 days.At the end of the experiment,the production performance,slaughter performance and plasma biochemical indexes were measured.【Result】 Dietary AME level significantly affected daily gain,feed conversion ratio and abdominal fat percentage (P<0.05),and with the increase of AME level,daily gain showed a linear and quadratic trend of increasing (P<0.05),feed conversion ratio showed a linear trend of decreasing (P<0.05),and abdominal fat percentage showed a linear trend of increasing (P<0.05).Dietary AME level had no significant effects on total energy intake,breast muscle percentage,leg muscle percentage,liver index and gizzard index (P＞0.05).Dietary AME level significantly affected plasma aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activity (P<0.05),but had no significant effects on other plasma biochemical indices (P＞0.05). Based on broken-line linear regression,the minimum AME requirements of Sansui duck aged 1 to 28 days for optimal feed conversion ratio,daily gain,and abdominal fat percentage were 11.83,11.42 and 12.24 MJ/kg,respectively.【Conclusion】 Dietary 11.38 MJ/kg AME could effectively improve daily gain,feed conversion ratio,and adbominal fat percentage.The optimal AME requirement of Sansui ducks aged from 1 to 28 days was 11.42 to 12.24 MJ/kg.

Key words: Sansui duck; apparent metabolizable energy (AME); slaughter performance; growth performance; requirement