222 Sire influence on hatchability and heritability estimates of quails in a humid tropical environment

Abstract

Abstract Study on Japanese quail was undertaken to determine sire influence on hatchability and estimation of heritability values among three strains of the birds in a humid tropical environment in Nigeria. Fertility and hatchability traits; body weight (BW), shank length (SL), thigh length (TL), breast length (BL), keel length (KL), and wing length (WL) at 2nd, 6th, 10th weeks of age were measured on 300 crossbred progeny from 270 Cinnamon brown dam mated with three different strains of sire namely; Cinnamon brown (CB), Panda White (PW), and Silver Brown (SB) in the mating ratio of 1: 4. The data were subjected to analysis of variance appropriate for completely randomised block design (CRBD) and significant means separated with Duncan’s multiple range tests. Heritability estimate was done using the sire component equation. The average percent fertility (71.64 - 75.76 %), hatchability (50.41 -57.17%), percent dead in germ (55.00 - 69.08%),dead in shell (11.20 - 18.25%) were significantly (P < 0.05) better in PW - sired progeny, while piped (13.06 - 20.11%), brooding (3.00 - 4.67%) and rearing mortality showed no significant difference (P > 0,05) among the three sired - progeny. The analysis showed that at weeks two, six, and ten, SB - sired progeny had superior heritabity estimates in most of the linear traits and recorded lower indeterminate values as compared with other sired - progeny. Moderate to high heritability estimate (42 - 83%) obtained for body weight at six and 10 weeks among the three progenies suggests that selection for body weight or growth rate in Japanese quail should be carried out at 6 and 10 weeks of age and that PW - sired progeny be selected for better hatchability for enhanced breeding program for both egg and meat production in the strains.