Abstract: The present experiment was conducted to obtain and analyze partial cDNA sequence of duck Insulin- like growth factor I receptor gene (IGF-IR), and to study the tissue expression characterization of IGF-IR mRNA in ducks. Partial sequence of IGF-IR cDNA was cloned by homologous alignment analysis, the sequence was analyzed by bioinformatics method, and its absolute mRNA expression was detected by quantitative RT-PCR in breast muscle at different embryonic period meat-type duck breed-Gaoyou ducks and egg-type duck breed-Jinding ducks. Sequence analysis showed that the 270 bp of CDS region of duck IGF-IR gene shared 95% , 79% , 78% , 77% , 78% , 76% identity with those of Gallus gallus, Homo sapiens, Mus -musculus, Rattus novegicus, Sus domesticus and Bos Taurus, respectively. The results of quantitative RT-PCR indicated that the expression of duck IGF-IR showed“wave”trend at different embryonic period, the highest level appeared at 21 embryo age, which was significant higher than that of 17, 25, 27 embryo age and 7 day-old (P<0.05). The expression level of IGF-IR mRNA between breeds was relatively stable; the difference was significant at 21 embryo age (P<0.05), and the differences were not significant at other embryo age (P>0.05).