Abstract: Body composition traits of Chaohu ducks selected within the breed were tested and analyzed to breed the new meattype strains of Chaohu ducks. Sixty Chaohu ducks (thirty males and thirty females) with 10 weekages were slaughted and detected the carcass traits including carcass weight, eviscerated weight with giblets, eviscerated weight, breast muscle, leg muscle, abdominal fat, subcutaneous fat and so on. Statistics analysis was carried out for these traits. The results showed that there were no significant differences（P>0.05) between male and female ducks for the percentage of carcass weight, eviscerated weight, leg muscle weight, subcutaneous fat and the shearing forces of breast and leg muscle. The female ducks’ percentage of eviscerated weight with giblets, breast muscle and lean meat was significantly higher than that of the male ducks’ (P<0.05). The male ducks’ ratio of bones weight to meat weight was higher than the female ducks’ (P<0.05). Analysis of correlation revealed that there was a significantly positive correlation among the different section weight index (P<0.01). There was no sinificant correlation between the percentage of different section weight and the body weight（P>0.05). There was a significant correlation(P<0.05) between sex and the percentage of eviscerated weight with giblets, breast and leg muscle weight, and heart weight. The better carcass performance and qualities were found in the elementarily selected Chaohu duck population from the experiment. 

Key words: Chaohu duck; carcass performance; traits analysis