The Mulard is a hybrid variety of domestic duck produced by crossing a female Pekin

Pekin duck

Pekin duck, or Long Island duck , is a breed of domesticated duck used primarily for egg and meat production. It was bred from the Mallard in China. The ancestors of those ducks originated from the canals which linked waterways in Nanjing and originally had small bodies and black feathers...

 with a male Muscovy Duck

Muscovy Duck

The Muscovy Duck is a large duck which is native to Mexico and Central and South America. A small wild population reaches into the United States in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas...

. Since the domestic Pekin is descended from the Mallard Duck (Anas platyrhynchos) and the Muscovy (Cairina moschata) is a separate species, all Mulards are sterile F1 hybrid

F1 hybrid

F1 hybrid is a term used in genetics and selective breeding. F1 stands for Filial 1, the first filial generation seeds/plants or animal offspring resulting from a cross mating of distinctly different parental types....

s. Most are bred through artificial insemination

Artificial insemination

Artificial insemination, or AI, is the process by which sperm is placed into the reproductive tract of a female for the purpose of impregnating the female by using means other than sexual intercourse or natural insemination...

, and are sometimes also called "mule

Mule

A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...

 ducks."

The Mulard is mostly produced commercially on farms for meat and for foie gras

Foie gras

Foie gras ; French for "fat liver") is a food product made of the liver of a duck or goose that has been specially fattened. This fattening is typically achieved through gavage corn, according to French law, though outside of France it is occasionally produced using natural feeding...

 production. White Muscovies and the Pekin are the two most common pure breeds of duck commercially, and hybrids of the two are hardier and calmer, in addition to exhibiting natural hybrid vigor.

The egg incubation

Avian incubation

Incubation refers to the process by which certain oviparous animals hatch their eggs, and to the development of the embryo within the egg. The most vital factor of incubation is the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period. Especially in domestic fowl, the act of...

 period of the crossings is median between the Mallard and Muscovy, with an average of 32 days. About half of the eggs hatch into mulard ducks. Mulards tend to combine certain traits of the two parent breeds. Due to their Muscovy heritage they produce leaner meat than Pekins; females tend to be raised for meat while males are used for foie gras. Mulards have claws on the feet like a Muscovy, but do not fly and perch, preferring water like Pekins.

Foie gras was traditionally produced primarily with geese, but in the 1960s the majority of farmers began to switch to Mulards. Geese are more expensive to maintain than ducks (they are larger and more aggressive), but the more temperamental Muscovies did not accept the process of gavage (force feeding) as readily as Pekins, and the quality of the foie gras suffered; this problem was avoided by the introduction of mulards. But these hybrids have become extremely common in countries where no foie gras is produced.

Today in France, the leading foie gras producer and consumer, the use of hybrid ducks vastly outnumbers the use of geese. In 2007 there were 35 million Mulard ducks raised in the country, compared with only 800,000 geese. In addition to being raised in Europe and the United States, Mulards are widely raised throughout Southeast Asia.