Comparative Investigation of Egg Production in Wg, Gg and Gl Japanese Quail Populations

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate egg production in three heavy Japanese quail populations created and reared in the Poultry Breeding Unit of the Trakia University – Bulgaria, marked as WG, GG and GL. In the experiments, 160 female birds from populations WG and GG, and 96 female birds from population GL were tested up to the 6th production month. The main egg production traits were controlled. The highest egg production for the period was demonstrated in group GL (79.84±4.46%), followed by group GG (76.33±3.40%) and group WG (72.11±4.16%). Quails from the WG group were outlined with least efficient feed conversion per egg (74.49±1.21 g feed), while those from the GL group: with the most efficient one – 64.93±1.41 g (p<0.01). The highest average egg weight in descending order was observed in the WG group (14.04±0.32 g), GG group (13.65±0.27 g) and GL group (12.79±0.29 g). The Japanese quail populations created and maintained at the Trakia University showed a potentially good egg production for the production type they belonged to, which makes them attractive for use in interline hybridisation schedules, including for production of autosexing stock layers.

Production performance of four lines of Japanese quail reared under tropical climatic conditions of Tamil Nadu, India

“… Taskin Atilla et al (2017) found that heavier birds consumed more feed than lighter birds. Similar findings were obtained by Arumugam et al (2011) , Hussain et al (2016) , and Lukanov et al (2018) .…”

“…Furthermore, Daikwo et al (2014) and Dauda et al (2014) both showed significantly lower body weights of 145 ± 0.74 g and 138.91 ± 0.64 g, respectively than those observed in the present study. However, greater than the present weights of 332.33 ± 2.45 and 346.3 ± 2.71 g, respectively, as determined by Arumugam et al (2011) and Lukanov et al (2018) . The variation in body weight between studies may be primarily due to genetic variation and environmental factors between studies conducted in different locations.…”

Welfare of ducks, geese and quail on farm

“…The females start laying at around 6 weeks of age and will produce almost one egg a day, resulting in a 1‐year production of approximately 290 eggs (Minvielle, 1998). Typically, a production cycle lasts 6 months (Lukanov et al., 2018). If kept for longer, the production during the second year can be expected to achieve 150–170 eggs.…”