Egg Quality Characteristics and Hatchability of Two Colour Variants of Japanese Quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Abstract

The study was designed to evaluate two colour variants of the Japanese quails namely the Panda white and Cinnanon brown for external and internal egg quality traits, fertility and hatchability. A total of 270 day old quails (135/genotype) were generated from a random bred population which was later subjected to assortative plumage mating. The quail chicks were brooded according to genotype, and reared to 6 weeks of age. Thereafter, 10 males and 40 females were selected from each genotype and housed on deep litter breeding pens at a mating ratio of 5 males to 20 females. Eggs were collected for assessment of external and internal egg characteristics after 30 days of onset of egg production. Data collected on external egg qualities included egg weight (g), egg length (mm), egg width (mm), egg volume (ml), shell weight (g), shell thickness (mm) while data on internal egg qualities included yolk density (mm), yolk diameter (mm), yolk weight (g), and albumen weight (g). One hundred and ten (110) eggs of each genotype were used to assess fertility and hatchability in each flock. Fertility was determined as the percentage of eggs set that were fertile while hatchability was determined as percentage of fertile eggs that hatched out. Other hatchability parameters such as dead germ and dead in shell were expressed as percentages of eggs set while normal and abnormal quail chicks were expressed as percentages of chicks hatched. All data collected were subjected to independent samples t test to compare between genotypes. The reproductive parameters were subjected to Pearson correlation analysis to ascertain the phenotypic relationship between pairs of traits. Genotype influenced reproductive parameters namely fertility, hatchablity, dead germ, and hatched chick weight but not external and internal egg qualities of the two quail colour variants. Significant correlation coefficients were observed between pairs of reproductive traits suggesting phenotypic associations that could be exploited to influence the outcome of incubation of quail eggs.