Genetic parameters of body weight, muscle weight and skeletal characteristics in Japanese quail

Abstract

Heritability, phenotypic and genetic correlations of body weight, muscle weight and skeletal characteristics of Japanese quail males at 8 weeks of age were investigated to obtain basal information on breeding and on genetic monitoring by morphometrical methods. For this study, 221 male progenies were used. Measurements were taken on body weight, muscle weight and four kind of skeletal characteristics (skeletal weight, skeletal length, skeletal width and skeletal height). Heritability estimates were 0.67 for body weight, 0.36 to 0.56 for muscle weight, 0.79 to 0.94 for skeletal weight, 0.35 to 0.77 for skeletal length, 0.17 to 0.32 for skeletal width and 0.41 to 0.84 for skeletal height, respectively. The phenotypic and genetic correlations were found to be highly positive between body weight, muscle weight and skeletal length. A high degree of genetic correlation was observed between femur length, ossa cruris length and ossa metatarsalia length. These results suggest that the body weight, muscle weight and skeletal characteristics can be improved by breeding and that these genetically determined skeletal characteristics might serve for strain identification and genetic monitoring in Japanese quail.