-The objective of this study was to compare fattening performance, carcass traits, and egg quality of Japanese quails with different feather colors (white, dark brown, golden, and wild-type). In the study, 360 one-day-old quail chicks with 4 different feather colors were used as animal material. Quails were fed ad libitum for 42 days to determine fattening performance and carcass traits. To determine egg traits, 48 hens from each group, in a total of 192, were selected and caged according to feather color. Eggs were collected for four consecutive weeks and egg quality characteristics were measured. Different feather colors had a significant effect on live weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and carcass characteristics. Significant differences between the groups were detected for egg weight, specific gravity, shape index, shell weight, albumen weight, yolk weight, albumen index, and yolk index. Japanese quails with all four feather colors can be reared depending on the choice. However, due to lower feed conversion ratio, white-feathered quails may be preferred for meat production purposes. Color variations should be considered when selecting quails.

-The present study was conducted to determine the effects of supplemented juniper berry (Juniperus communis) on fattening performance and some carcass traits of quails. A total of 150 one-day-old Japanese quail chicks were randomly divided into five groups (one control and four treated groups) with three replicates. Four different juniper berry levels (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2%) and a control treatment (0%) were added to the diet. Juniper berry supplementation to the diets initiated at the end of the 1st week and sustained for seven weeks. Live weight, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio during the trial and some carcass traits after slaughter were determined. Juniper berry supplementation in the diet during seven weeks of growing period significantly increased body weight, cumulative feed intake, and feed conversion ratio of the treated groups. Carcass weight, carcass yield, and breast yield were also significantly increased by supplemented juniper berry. No significant difference was observed between viability of different groups. Supplementation of 0.5-1% juniper berry in quail diets has positive impacts on fattening performance and carcass traits.

Objective. This study was conducted to research the effects of different levels of dried white mulberry (Morus alba) pulp supplementation in diets of laying quail on yield performances, egg quality, blood parameters, yolk fatty acid profiles and cholesterol concentrations. Materials and Methods. A completely randomized experimental design, with four treatments and four replicates, was applied. The experimental treatments were M0: control diet; M4: dietary inclusion of 4% mulberry pulp; M8: dietary inclusion of 8% mulberry pulp; M12: dietary inclusion of 12% mulberry pulp. This experiment was carried out for 4 weeks, and 128 7-week-old female quail were used. Results. Addition of dried mulberry pulp to the diet significantly affected weekly feed intake, egg yield, albumin index, yolk weight, triglyceride, LDL, serum cholesterol and yolk cholesterol levels (p<0.05, p<0.01). The feed conversion ratio, egg weight, and egg yolk fatty acid profile were not significantly affected by the dried mulberry pulp in the diet. Conclusions. As a result, it may be stated that adding dried mulberry pulp up to 8% of the diets of laying quail does not cause any adverse effects and may be used without any problems.

-This study was conducted to compare live weight, feed intake, feed conversion, mortality rate, and some carcass characteristics of Japanese quails reared under organic and conventional conditions. A total of 180 one-day-old quail chicks were randomly divided into six groups -Conventional, consuming conventional feed ad libitum; Control (C), consuming organic feed ad libitum; C+P, consuming organic feed ad libitum + pasture; 80C+P, consuming 80% of control + pasture; 70C+P, consuming 70% of control + pasture; and 50C+P, consuming 50% of control + pasture -with three replicates. The conventional group was kept for 6 weeks, while the control, C+P, 80C+P, 70C+P, and 50C+P groups were reared until the end of 10 weeks of age. Raising systems significantly affected live weight, feed intake, and feed conversion. The analysis showed that the meat yield of quail raised in organic conditions had better results than those raised in conventional conditions in terms of appearance, color, aroma, and flavor. The group consuming 50% of control plus pasture was more advantageous than the other organic groups and the conventional group at the end of the 10-week fattening period. The organic production system can be a good system to meet the demand of consumers who seek more natural products.

KeywordsCarcass weight, Carcass parts, factor analysis score based regression, ridge regression, white turkeys. ABSTRACTIn this study, the influence of carcass parts weights (thigh, breast, wing, back weight, gizzard, heart, and feet) on whole carcass weight of white turkeys (Big-6) was analyzed by regression analysis based on ridge regression and factor analysis scores. For this purpose, a total of 30 turkey carcasses of 15 males and 15 females with 17 weeks of age, were used. To determine the carcass weight (CW), thigh weight (TW), breast weight (BRW), wing weight (WW), back weight (BW), gizzard weight (GW), heart weight (HW), and feet weight (FW) were used. In the ridge regression model, since the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) values of the variables were less than 10, the multicollinearity problem was eliminated. Furthermore, R 2 =0.988 was obtained in the ridge regression model. Since the eigenvalues of the two variables predicted by factor analysis scores were greater than 1, the model can be explained by two factors. The variance explained by two factors constitutes 88.80% of the total variance. The regression equation was statistically significant (p<0.01). In the regression equation, two factors obtained by using factor analysis scores were independent variables and standardized carcass weight was considered as dependent variable. In the regression model created by factor analysis scores, the Variance Inflation Factor values were 1 and R 2 =0.966. Both regression models were found to be suitable for predicting carcass weight of turkeys. However, the ridge regression method, which presented higher R 2 value, has been shown to better explain the carcass weight.

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The aim of this study was to determine the effect of three production systems on live weight gain (LWG) of white turkeys by repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and profile analysis. A total of 81 turkey poults were assigned to intensive (7 male and 19 female), semi-intensive (9 male and 19 female) and extensive groups (11 male and 16 female) at one day old. The poults were wing-banded at day 1 after hatching and weighed individually each week through 16 weeks old. The birds were managed similarly through eight weeks old. After that time, the intensive group was fed concentrated feed indoors. The birds of the semi-intensive group had access to pasture for eight hours a day, and received 50% of the concentrated feed that was consumed by the intensive group. The birds in the extensive group were kept outdoors with shade and grazed on pasture, but did not receive concentrated feed. The bi-weekly LWG of the extensive, intensive and semi-intensive groups were 1191.4 g, 990.6 g and 872.1 g, respectively. Through the 16 weeks of the trial, the effects on LWG of production system, age, and interaction of age and production system were highly significant (P <0.01) in the repeated measures ANOVA. The profile analysis also showed highly significant (P <0.01) production system effects and interaction of production system and age on LWG. Scheffe’s test indicated that the intensive, semi-intensive, and extensive treatments differed (P <0.05).

-The objective of this study was to determine the effects of egg quality characteristics (egg weight, egg width, egg height, and shape index) on fertility of eggs of Japanese quail with different colored feathers (yellow, white, grizzled, and normal), which are of economic importance for poultry production. For this purpose, 383 eggs of Japanese quail with various feather colors were used. In the study, usability of classification and regression tree (CART) data-mining algorithm as a classification tree method is necessary for poultry breeders to define proper cut-off values of egg quality characteristics that ensure Japanese quail eggs at good quality in fertility. Fertility as the dependent variable in the study was examined as a binary trait (fertile and infertile) and all the egg quality traits accepted as explanatory variables were continuous variables. Feather color was also included as a nominal categorical explanatory variable. The classification tree results showed that the highest fertility ratio of 90.9% was obtained from the eggs of Japanese quail of white, grizzled, and normal feather colors with 10.425 g ≥ egg weight, 24.565 mm ≥ egg width, or the fertility ratio of 88.2% of the eggs was observed with 10.425 g ≤ egg weight and 25.605 mm ≥ egg width. Consequently, usability of the tree-based CART algorithm is important in practice for properly establishing fertilized eggs, depending on feather color types of Japanese quail.