Genetic parameters of body weight and egg traits in meat-type quail

Abstract

Data from two quail strains, UFV1 and UFV 2, measured weekly from hatch to sixth week in a total of seven live body weight traits were used aiming to estimate genetic correlations and heritabilities. After females were evaluated they were monitored in their egg-laying phase, in which the total egg number, the average weight of the eggs and the average specific gravity of eggs were measured. Multi-trait analysis was performed with the ten traits measured for estimation of heritabilities, genetic and residual correlations. For body weight traits, heritabilities varying from 0.25 to 0.53 for UFV1 and from 0.27 to 0.53 for UFV2 were estimated; genetic correlations increased as the interval between records was reduced. For egg number, the heritability estimate was of low magnitude (0.05 and 0.04), whereas for average egg weight (0.41 and 0.39) and egg specific gravity (0.31 and 0.18), they were of moderate magnitude for UFV1 and UFV2, respectively. The genetic correlations between body weights and egg number were negative in UFV1 and positive in UFV2; for average egg weight, they were positive, and for specific gravity, they were negative for both strains. It can be concluded, then, that selection based on body weight in the growth phase of meat quail must be done preferably at early ages such as weight at the third or fourth week of life, once they are positively correlated with weight at slaughter age and have few effects on the production and quality of eggs.

Genotype and protein level interaction in growth traits of meat-type quail through reaction norm models

“…These estimates were partially higher than previous estimates reported in Japanese quail (Varkoohi et al, 2010); and partially similar to the results obtained by Silva et al (2013) in meat-type quail. However, in the latter, different PL had not been considered for the genetic parameter estimation.…”

“…The animals (970 birds from UFV1 and 410 from UFV2) were selected according to high body weight. The average weight and meat yield indicated that these strains are suitable for meat production (Silva et al, 2013).…”

“…The term meat-type quail (Coturnix coturnix coturnix) is often used to differentiate from the term Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) describing species widely used for egg production (Silva et al, 2013). Regardless the quail production approach (meat or egg), these animals are an economic animal model for breeding research (Alkan et al, 2010) due to the small body size (a large number of birds can be kept in a limited space) and short generation interval.…”

Interpolation method for live weight estimation based on age in Japanese quails

“…In this study, seven-week-old male quail weighed 178.15 g, and female quail, 212.22 g. Toelle et al (1991) and Sari et al (2010) reported by the quail at five weeks of age were found in live weight of 170 g and 176 g, respectively. Silva et al (2013) reported average live weight of 274.29 g in the sixth week of meat-type quail. Narinç and Aksoy (2014) indicated that the average live weight was between 174.40-178.30 g at five weeks in Japanese quail in several generations.…”

Utilização de dados parciais na seleção de codornas de corte para produção de ovos

“…bras., Brasília, v.48, n.5, p.559-563, maio 2013 DOI: 10.1590/S0100-204X2013000500013 produção, que depende de três fatores principais: a idade ao primeiro ovo, taxa de postura e persistência da postura. A escolha do melhor critério de seleção para a produção de ovos deve levar em consideração esses três fatores (Winter et al, 2006;Rossi et al, 2010;Silva et al, 2013).…”