Abstract: The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of GH gene was investigated in various breeds,　including beijing ducks, xihu mallards, cherry valley meat ducks, jinding ducks, shan partridge ducks, jingjiang ducks, shaoxing ducks, jinyun partridge ducks. Five primers for 5’-UTR and 3’-UTR of GH gene were designed according the database of duck genomic sequence and the SNPs were detected by PCR-SSCP method. Polymorphism (C/G at 230 and C/A at 244 ) was only found among individuals within jinding ducks, jingjiang ducks, shaoxing ducks. Population genetics analysis showed that the frequency of AB genotype in jinding ducks was significantly higher than that of jingjiang ducks and shaoxing ducks and the frequency of A allele in jinding ducks was significantly higher than that in jingjiang ducks and shaoxing ducks.

Key words: duck; growth hormone gene; single nucleotide polymorphism