Evaluation of Phenotypic and Genetic Parameters Affecting Reproductive and Productive Traits in Two Quail Strains

Influence of Selection for Increased Egg Production, Body Weight, and Shank Width of Turkeys on Egg Composition and the Relationship of the Egg Traits to Hatchability

Some factors affecting the fertility and hatchability of Japanese quail eggs were studied at the Poultry Unit of the University of Maiduguri Livestock Teaching and Research Farm. A total of 1850 eggs were used for the study and data collected were subjected to Analysis of Variance. The mean values of fertility, hatchability of total and fertile eggs set, early, mid and late embryo mortalities were 74.33, 51.35, 69.09, 10.25, 7.57 and 12.30% respectively. Fertility was highest (84.92%) in the dry cold, least (35.58%) in the dry hot, with wet season (80.75%) being intermediate. Similarly, hatchability of total and fertile eggs set were 67.18 and 79.11% in the dry cold, 14.11 and 39.66% in the dry hot and 46.86 and 58.03% in the wet season. Younger quails (≤10 and 11-22 weeks) had higher fertility and hatchability than older ones (23-34 and 35-52 weeks). Early embryo mortality also increased with age. Fertility and hatchability of eggs from caged birds was 89.54 and 62.34% as compared to 54.93 and 37.35% from deep litter reared birds and hatchability of fertile eggs was 69.63 and 67.96% respectively. Fertility and hatchability was highest (92.15 and 71.48%) for birds of ratio 1:3 and least for 1:5 (19.60 and 10%). Breeders that weighed 181-200 g had the highest hatchability (79.22%) and ≤140 g the least (60.83%). In contrast, breeder's with weights ≤ 140 g had the highest late embryo mortality (20%) and 141-160 g the least (9.67%). Light brown quails had lower hatchability of total and fertile eggs (23.71% and 35.71%) as compared to wild type or normal colored ones (52.04% and 69.84%). Light brown, however, had higher (P<0.05) early and late embryo mortalities (21.43% and 35.71%) than wild type (10.0% and 11.77%). It can be concluded from this study that for optimum fertility and hatchability, Japanese quail should be reared in cages at a mating ratio of 1:3 male to female.

Egg Quality and Poult Production in Turkeys: 2. Inheritance and Relationship among Traits

The present study was conducted to assess and compare the performance of Aseel and Kadaknath chicken in addition to the estimation of genetic and phenotypic parameters of growth, production and reproduction traits in both indigenous breeds. Single-generation data (2018) were collected from the records maintained at Poultry Breeding Farm, Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, LUVAS, Hisar. The least-squares means for different growth, reproduction and production traits, viz., body weights at 8 (BW8), 12 (BW12), 16 (BW16), 20 (BW20) and 40 (BW40) weeks of age, age at first egg (AFE), egg production up to 40 weeks of age (EP40) and egg weight at 40 weeks of age (EW40), were 461.41 ± 10.09 g, 683.64 ± 15.10 g, 886.01 ± 20.24 g, 1117.30 ± 22.68 g, 1772.02 ± 18.86 g, 182.66 ± 1.98 days, 64.89 ± 2.10 and 47.23 ± 0.42 g in Aseel breed. The corresponding figures in Kadaknath breed were 343.63 ± 5.67 g, 552.35 ± 6.97 g, 719.04 ± 9.02 g, 920.47 ± 11.20 g, 1581.13 ± 13.37 g, 169.83 ± 0.95 days, 55.48 ± 1.22 and 41.99 ± 0.29 g, respectively. Higher body weights were observed for Aseel breed compared to Kadaknath breed at different ages. The effect of the hatch was significant for all the growth traits and AFE in Kadaknath chicken, while it was significant only for BW12 in Aseel chicken. Genetic correlations among body weights at different ages and AFE in both the breeds were found to be negative, indicating that lower body weights of birds within a breed lead to delay in AFE. Heritability estimates for different performance traits ranged from moderate to high (0.26–0.70) in Aseel and low to moderate (0.12–0.37) in Kadaknath chicken, suggesting the scope of improvement through individual and family selection in both the indigenous breeds.

race minerals are essential for the bird's body, and are effective in its performance. The current study investigates the effects of organic and mineral forms of copper, zinc, and manganese on the production traits and reproductive performance of Ross 308 broiler breeders. So, 240 hens and 30 roosters were used. The research was conducted as a factorial experiment in the form of a completely randomized design. The factors included the A factor (2 levels of organic and inorganic forms) and the B factor (3 levels of zinc, copper, and manganese). The number of treatments, repeats, and pens were 6, 5, and 30, respectively. The data obtained from the reproductive and reproductive traits' measurements were analyzed with the LSmeans procedure by SAS statistical software. The effect of minerals, mineral forms, and their interaction was significant (p<0.05) on egg production, egg mass, egg weight, hatchable egg, fertility rate, hatchability egg, and chicken weight during weeks 36-33, 37-40, and the whole period. Organic zinc improved the studied traits and, in comparison to other factors, had the most significant effect on them.

The substitution effect of maize grain with grain milling by-products (GMP) was investigated on egg production and fertility parameters in White Leghorn layer hens. To this effect, four treatment (T) diets were formulated to contain GMP (g/kg) at zero (T1), 100 (T2), 150 (T3) and 200 (T4) by partially replacing the maize grain. One-hundred forty four White Leghorn layer hens were allocated randomly to the treatment diets, replicated thrice consisting of 12 hens each. The experiment was conducted for 20 weeks. The results indicated that the hen-housed egg production and daily egg mass output was higher (p<0.001) in hens fed with T1 and T2 diets than those of T3 and T4. Birds fed with T1 diet produced heavier (p<0.001) eggs than those reared in T2, T3 and T4 diets, the former being significantly different with the latter two. The daily feed intake differed significantly among treatment diets being higher (p<0.001) in birds fed with T1 and T2 than that of T3 and T4 diets, which had similar values. No significant difference was observed in hen-housed egg production, daily egg mass output, and daily feed intake among hens fed with T1 and T2 diets. Similarly, no significance difference was observed in egg weight, total and daily feed intake between hens fed with T3 and T4 diets. The feed conversion ratio (FCR, kg feed/kg egg mass) were different among treatment diets in which the lowest value being observed in those chickens reared in T1 followed by T2 diets. Birds fed with T4 diet had the highest FCR as compared with the rest of the treatment groups. Fertility and hatchability of eggs set were similar among chickens reared in T1 and T2 diets; but were higher (p<0.05) than those of T3 and T4 which had similar values. However, hens fed with T4 diet had lower (p<0.05) value in hatchability of fertile eggs than the rest of other treatments. In conclusion, the substitution of maize grain with 10% GMP showed similar effect with that of the control group in all studied performance parameters. Thus, GMP could be safely incorporated in replacement of maize for layer hen diets up to 10%. Keywords: egg fertility; egg production; grain milling by-products; maize grain; White Leghorn chicken DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/10-9-02 Publication date: May 31 st 2020

Effect of high shell temperature and position in the incubator on embryonic mortality and hatchability of fertile broiler eggs

Estimates of (co)variance components for production and reproduction traits with different models in Fars native fowls

Egg Quality and Reproduction in Turkeys: 5. Relationship among Traits in Medium-and Large-Bodied Lines

The effects of different dietary oils superimposed on different levels of dietary protein on the rate of egg production, egg weight and egg hatchability and fertility in the tropics have been studied, using 405 layers and 81 breeding cocks all of the single comb White Leghorn x White Plymouth Rock breeds, over a period of 6 months. The oils were plam oil, groundnut oil and lard, and the three dietary protein levels were 14.4, 16.0 and 18.0%. Egg production rate was highest on the 3% palm oil diet superimposed on 18.0% protein diet and lowest on the 3% lard diet superimposed on 14.0% protein diet. There were significant increases in egg production rate as dietary protein levels increased and the differences due to oil types were also significant, being best for palm oil and poorest for lard diets. Feed/dozen eggs, the fertility and hatchability of the eggs laid, and the egg weights were also significantly influenced by oil types, and they all generally favoured palm oil diets, closely followed by groundnut oil diets. Lard significantly depressed egg production rate, egg weight, and egg hatchability and fertility. Protein levels significantly affected egg production rates, egg weight, feed/dozen eggs and egg fertility and hatchability.

Abstract. This study was undertaken to determine the effects of storage period and egg weight of hatching eggs of Japanese quails on fertility, hatchability results. Eggs were obtained 150 females quails, all at 15 weeks of age. A total of 1942 hatching eggs were separated into 3 groups as light-weight (9.50-10.50 g), medium-weight (10.51-11.50 g), and heavy-weight (11.51-12.50 g). Based on storage period, eggs were divided into 5 groups as group 1 (0-3 days), group 2 (4-6 days), group 3 (7-9 days), group 4 (10-12 days), and group 5 (13-15 days). The influence of storage period on hatchability of fertile eggs and early, middle, and late period embryonic mortality rates was found significant (P<0.01). The effect of egg weight on fertility rate, hatchability of fertile eggs and early embryonic mortality was significant (P<0.05, P<0.01). The significant differences between storage period groups were observed in hatchability of fertile eggs. The differences between egg weight groups for fertility rate, hatchability of fertile eggs and early embryonic mortality was significantly higher in light weight group than the other egg weight groups. Results of this study concluded that a 12 day pre-incubation storage of hatching eggs of Japanese quails did not appreciably affect hatching parameters. Use of medium or heavy weight eggs for hatching may reduce early embryonic mortality rate.

In this study, the data and pedigree records of the native fowls collected by Fars Native Fowls Breeding Center during 1990-2004 were analyzed. A pedigree file collected on 30855 hens and roosters was used to calculate the inbreeding coefficients and its trend and its effect on production and reproduction traits. The average of inbreeding coefficient for all birds was 0.002% ranging from 0 to 14.8%. In this population, 14% of the birds were inbred with an average inbreeding coefficient of 0.019%. The Inbreeding coefficient was considered as covariate to estimate its effect on economic traits including body weight in 12 weeks (BW12), egg number during 12 weeks (EN), mean egg weight between 28 to 32 weeks (MEW) and Age of Sexual Maturity (ASM). Results showed that inbreeding does not have a significant effect on the traits under study (p > 0.05). Moreover, heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations between traits was estimated through a multiple traits animal model procedure by restricted maximum likelihood using ASREML software. The estimated heritabilities were 0.53, 0.47, 0.57 and 0.22 for body weight in 12 weeks (BW12), Age of Sexual Maturity (ASM), mean Egg Weight (EW) and Egg Number (EN), respectively. Because of relatively high heritabilities of productive and reproductive traits, it is possible to achieve more genetic gains in these traits using appropriate genetic selection.

An experiment to determine the relationship between egg weight, hatch weight and subsequent body weight of the Japanese quail was conducted. A total of 607 eggs collected over 6 days from an existing flock at the Animal Pavilion of the University of Ilorin were used for the experiment. Eggs were individually numbered, weighed and grouped into small (S) medium (M) and large (L) sized eggs based on the mean and standard deviation of the eggs. Mean egg weight were correlated and regressed with mean hatch weight and subsequent weight. Average egg weights were 10.23± 0.84g, 8.49± 0.72g and 6.94± 0.93g for the large, medium and small group respectively. The result showed relationship between egg weight and hatch weight were positive and highly significant (P < 0.01) with values of 0.973, 0.977 and 0.967 for small, medium and large groups, respectively. Relationship between hatch weights and weekly body weights were also positive and significant (P<0.01) for the medium and large groups only but decreased with age. Linear regression equation showed a significant coefficient of determination for weekly body weight using the values for small, medium and large egg weight values. The results of the study showed that egg weight can be reliably used for estimating body weight in Japanese quail and may be used as criteria for early selection of Japanese quail for body weight.

The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of magnetic field on the productive and physiological performance of Ross 308. The experimental flock consist of 60 hens and 10 cocks of broiler breeders, which randomly divided into four groups and distributed on the treatments with three replicates for each treatment. The treatments included the control treatment (T1), exposure the stored semen to 803 gauss magnetic field for 24 hours (T2), exposure the fertile eggs to 250 gauss magnetic field for 72 hours before entered the incubator (T3) and exposure the individual cages to 250 gauss magnetic field for 8 weeks (T4), and the performance traits of hen day egg production, egg weight, recorded from magnetization cages group and compared with control group. The results showed a significant decrease (P≤0.05) in fertility and hatchability of total eggs in T2 compared with other groups, and there was no significant difference in the hatchability of fertile eggs and embryonic mortality among treatments, egg weight and the hen day egg production. (HD).

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effects of the age of ostriches and month of laying on egg production and chick growth. On a small ostrich farm egg production, egg incubation and chick growth from hatching to 56 days of age were recorded from 2000, when the breeders were 5 years old, until 2002. Ostriches were kept in groups and fed commercial feed. In all, 568 eggs were laid and weighed at laying and during incubation (at 15th and 30th day of incubation), while 353 chicks were weighed at hatching, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days of age.The female’s productivity was calculated assuming a laying of 3.5 eggs per week and ranged between 45% and 48%. The fertility was around 70% with a peak of 74% recorded in 2001. The hatchability of all eggs was higher than 62% with a peak of 72% in 2001, while the hatchability of fertile eggs was higher than 90%. In each year the number of eggs laid increased from March to July, productivity showed a positive trend from May to June, while the fertility and hatchability of all eggs, as well as fertile eggs, was unaffected by year and month. As the hens aged, the egg mass grew constantly with an increase of about 8%. During the first 30 days of incubation the egg weight decreased with the percentages of weight loss around 10.0%. At hatching, the weight of chick ranged between 765 g and 847 g, respectively, in 2000 and 2002. Egg weight influenced the hatching weight showing a linear relationship (R2=0.84). The effect of egg weight on the chick weight decreased as the chick grew. At 56 days of age, only the effect of year is significant. The month of laying did not demonstrate any effect on chicken weight.