Effects of Selection for Body Weight and Egg Production on Egg Quality Traits in Japanese Quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) of Different Lines and Relationships between These Traits

Abstract

Summary This research was conducted to investigate the effects of selection on egg weight, shell thickness, shell weight, shape index, albumen index, yolk index and Haugh Unit in 11 generations selected Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica). The material used in this research was selected for 11 generations from high (HL) or low (LL) body weight Japanese quail lines according to 5-week body weights and their random bred control line (C) and layer line (L) for 120 d egg production. There were found significant differences among the lines in terms of all egg traits (P<0.01). The egg weights were determined in HL, LL, L and C lines as 14.14±0.17 g, 9.23±0.07, 10.49±0.10 and 11.43±0.13 g respectively. Besides there were significant (P<0.01) differences among the lines for the shell weight, and highest and lowest values were determined as 1.15±0.02 g and 0.84±0.02 g in HL and LL lines. Once again, there were found significant (P<0.05) differences among the lines in point of Haugh Unit. The highest positive correlation (P<0.01) was found between egg weight and egg width (0.938), and the highest negative correlation (P<0.01) was found between shape index and egg length (-0.531). Almost all of the internal quality traits of the egg changes depending on external quality traits of the egg.