Two experiments were conducted at the poultry farm of Department of Animal Production-College of Agriculture-University of Diyala / Iraq, the first experiment performed in Autumn season using 324 birds and the second experiment performed in Spring season using 397 birds reared for ten weeks, the study aimed to detect the productive performance of three varieties of Japanese quail(White, Black and Brown plumage color) in the natural conditions of Iraq during Spring and Autumn seasons and the effect of genotype × environment interaction (G × E) on meat and egg production. The statistical analysis done according to factorial experiment in Completely Randomized Design (3 × 2) with three replicates. The results showed, significant superiority of the Black variety in the body weight measurements during the first 5 weeks of age, while there were no significant differences found in body weight between Black and Brown varieties during 6 and 7 weeks of age. There were significant differences due to G×E in body weight measurements of all weeks of rearing. The results showed significant superiority of the Black variety compared with White variety in feed consumption and weight gain traits, and also there were a significant superiority of measurements during Spring season rearing compared with Autumn season rearing in respect of weight gain and feed conversion traits, also there were significant G×E effect in feed conversion. There was a significant superiority of measurements during Autumn season rears in the age of sexual maturity of females, hen day egg production (%), and the number of eggs per hen.

The present investigation was conducted during 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons on 10-year-old Superior grapevines cultivar grown in a sandy soil, planted at 2 m within rows and 3 m between rows and irrigated using drip irrigation system at a private vineyard located at El-Khatatba, Menoufiya governorate, Egypt. The obtained data was discussed in details for the last 2 seasons only. The main objective of this investigation was to study the effect of fulvic acid foliar application 9 ml/liter /vine, either alone or in combination with micro-elements (Fe SO4. 7H2O at 0.36 g + Zn SO4.7H2O at 0.18 g + MnSO4. H2O at 0.18 g) and bio-fertilizers (Trichoderma viride + Trichoderma harzianum + Serratia sp. + Pseudomonas fluorescens + Bacillus polymyxa) at 7.14 ml/liter/vine (10 4 /ml per fungi and 10 9 /ml per bacteria viable cell) on vegetative growth, total chlorophyll content, yield, physical and chemical characteristics of cluster and quality of berries, total carbohydrates, total N and C/N ratio in canes of Superior seedless grapevines. Results revealed that the combined treatment of fulvic acid, micro-elements plus bio-fertilizers induced indispensable positive effects for enhancing vegetative growth, total chlorophyll content, yield, physical and chemical characteristics of cluster and quality of berries, total carbohydrates, total N and C/N ratio in canes of Superior grapevines. A stronger effect may probably support the hypothesis of that humic substances have different effects on plant adequately supplied with nutrients, in sustainable or organic viticulture for production of organic products, which can be a noteworthy alternative to synthesized chemicals fertilizers to produce a healthy product-free from their toxic residues and fit for export. Foliar spray applications of these products can have prospects for optimal economical use in terms minimizing the cost of production and in turn increased the income of vineyards.

J apanese quail used in poultry industry for its meat and egg production due to many features such as low feed intake, low rearing area requirements, low breeding cost and high disease resistance (Narinc et al., 2010). Based on these advantages, the reared number of quails is gradually increasing in the world poultry industry as a valuable source for eggs and meat production. Commercially, quails are produced mainly for meat production in Europe countries and for egg production in Japan and used as a dual-purpose birds in many Asian countries (Minvielle, 1998). The National Research Council recommendations of crude protein was 24 % for growing Japanese quails (NRC, 1994). Global environment suffering from pollution from ammonia emission and nitrogen excretion from poultry industry, beside that the protein being the most expensive diet component which affect the total cost of production, so the recent trends are decreasing the protein levels in poultry diets without significant effects on production performance. Wen et al. (2017) recorded that quails reared on diets with crude protein range 17.61-25.32 % had no significant influence on carcass yield at 42 days of age. Most breeding programs that aimed to improve meat production are focused on increase live body weight and feed intake at fixed ages, and most studies carried out to increase the body weight in early periods using genetic selection which represent an important tool for genetic improvement in animal breeding program (Hassan, 2011; Fadhil and Hassan, 2018) or using outbreeding mating system between lines to get heterosis in the next generation (Hassan and Ali, 2017). Phenotypic selection used research Article Abstract | Japanese quail is an interested bird due to its early sexual maturity, high egg production and low requirements of housing space and feeding cost. Genetic selection was conducted for high four week body weight in Japanese quails using two different nutritional environments to determine the effect of nutritional environment on selection response of body. Japanese quails were selected under standard crude protein level diet (24.15 % CP) referred as SHW line, and under a low protein diet (18.07 % CP) referred as LHW line, and kept a control line for each nutritional environment as SCL and LCL respectively. The results showed that selection response for body weight of females in low protein diet (27.73 g.) was higher than males and females in selected line in standard protein diet (20.77 and 20.70 g. respectively). In general there were significant heavier body weight of birds in standard crude protein diet compared with low crude protein diet in each of base population, selected parents and progeny in first generation. There were significant differences between SHW and LCL in body weight and weight gain at six weeks of age, while there were significant differences between LHW and both SCL and LCL in feed intake and feed conversion at six weeks of age.

Background: There are many varieties of Japanese quail were reared in Iraq for both egg and meat production purpose. The variety classification was according to the color of plumage. Background: The study was conducted in poultry farm of Animal Resources-College of Agriculture-University of Diyala-Iraq, to compare two varieties of Japanese quail, white plumage quail and Gray plumage quail for their performance in meat production and some measurements of vital organs. Materials and Methods: The experimental units were 36 birds slaughtered at ages 6, 8 and 10 week of age, and measurements took for the following traits : live body weight, carcass weight, dress percentage, breast part weight, thigh weight, heart weight, liver weight, gizzard weight and total intestine length. The experiment performed according to 2 × 2× 3 factorial experiment in randomized complete block design with three replicates. Results: the results showed that there were highly significant differences among males and females in body weight, dress percentage, gizzard weight, liver weight and intestine length. The white variety has the relative heart weight significantly greater than gray variety. There were significant effect of age × variety interaction on gizzard weight, besides significant effect of age × sex on liver weight.

Abstract:Background: There are many factors affecting successes of quail production system , one of important factor is provide sufficient number of egg for needs of hatcheries to produce chicks . This study was conducted in poultry farm of Animal Resources -College of Agriculture -University of Diyala -Iraq, to determine suitable conditions for storage of Japanese quail eggs belong to three varieties of Japanese quails( White , Black and brown plumage color ). Materials and Methods: Eggs from three varieties allocated in two groups represented two storage temperatures 7 C° and 20 C° (average room temperature ) , and each temperature group divided into four sub-groups represented storage periods length 3 , 7 , 10 and 14 days , thus the total number of egg groups were 16 groups. The experiment performed in factorial experiment 3 × 2 × 4 for three factors included variety, storage temperature and storage period , conducted in Randomized Completely Blocks Design with three replicates. The experimental flock consist of 450 birds belong to three varieties , the eggs collected daily and stored according to these various treatments before entered the incubator , and after hatching of eggs , the data recorded for hatchability and embryonic mortality percentages for treatments. Results: The results showed that the black variety quail has significant superiority in fertility (80.19 %) with compare to White and Brown varieties (69.07 and 68.03 % respectively). There were significant effect (P< 0.05) of storage period on hatchability, hence there were significantly decline in hatchability after storage period for 14 days (36.58 %), also there were significant interaction between varieties and storage periods. While there were no significant effect of storage temperature and other interactions on hatchability and embryonic mortality percentage.

This paper looks at the feasibility of using sugarcane bagasse (SGB) for the cultivation of Pleurotus ostreatus (oyster mushrooms) as an alternative for rubber tree sawdust (RS). Three different compositions of oil palm trunk and rubber tree sawdust were studied with each composition having three replicates. A substrate containing only rubber tree sawdust acted as the control variable. The substrates were supplemented with 5% rice bran and 1.5% calcium carbonate. There are four steps involved in the cultivation of P. ostreatus which were bagging, sterilization, spawning and harvesting the substrates. The mycelia growth, spawn run, pin head formation, yield and biological efficiency were observed. The 100% composition of RS gave the best yield in terms of the mean height of stipe, which was 7.75cm. The mean fresh weight of sawdust was the highest with 50.4g with the number of fruiting bodies around 6. The least yield was recorded for 50% composition of substrates with a mean height of stipe 9.12cm. Among the substrates used, the RS showed the highest biological efficiency with 56.3% followed by 45.1% and 44.8% RS having mixed compositions of 25% and 50% SGB substrates, respectively. Hence, it is proven that in terms of quantity and quality, the unmixed substrates produced better edible mushrooms. However, the results obtained by SGB also showed a great potential as an alternative substrate for the cultivation of P. ostreatus when mixed with RS.

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).

No abstract