Influence of european quail breeders age on egg quality, incubation, fertility and progeny performance

Abstract

The influence of age (85, 140, and 270 days) of European quails breeders on the egg quality and hatching, fertility and progeny performance was evaluated. The experimental design was completely randomized in a 3x3 factorial arrangement (females' age x males' age), with ten replicates and six birds per experimental unit (four females and two males). Egg production and quality were determined during 3 periods of 14 days and incubation parameters were evaluated in eggs obtained in five consecutive days. The live performance of the progenies was analyzed until 35 days. There was no effect of male age or any interaction between the age of males and females for the evaluated variable. The female's age influenced egg production, egg weight and chick weight, with better results obtained for 140-d-old breeders. The age of females reduced the hatchability, increased the late mortality in incubated eggs, and had no effect on fertility, total embryo mortality or eggshell structure, when analyzed by electron microscopy. The number of sperm trapped in the outer perivitelline layer (sptz/mm²) was determined in 10 fertile eggs per experimental unit. Young females fertilized by young males (80 days) had reduced sptz/mm². Progeny live performance was not affected by breeder's age. Breeders with 270 days retain fertility; however, their egg production, weight and hatchability of fertilized eggs is reduced. In conclusion, European quail breeders with 140 days of age have better egg quality, hatching and breeding results.

Effect of breeder age and storage conditions of Japanese quail eggs on hatchability, quail neonate quality, and Bursa of Fabricius characteristics

“…The results regarding the hatching:fertile egg ratio corroborate those of Santos et al (2015), who studied quail breeders of different ages and also found that older quails (48 weeks) had worse results for egg hatching than those of younger breeders (20 weeks old) and corroborate those of Araújo et al (2016), who studied broiler breeders of different ages and also found that older quails (59 weeks) had worse results for egg hatching than those of younger breeders (29 or 35 weeks). According to Almeida et al (2006), the lower rate of egg hatching among older breeders can be explained by the poorer quality of the shell, which results in a high rate of embryo mortality.…”

Correlation among the main parameters of eggshell quality analysis of hen and quail eggs

“…The highest degree of correlation (p <0.05) of the parameters of quail eggshell quality analysis occurred between breaking strength and shell percentage (Table 3), probably, because the percentage of shell in quail eggs is one of the lowest as compared with eggs of other poultry species (TOLIK et al, 2014). In spite of that, quail eggs present increased membrane thickness in relation to the total shell volume, and according to Santos et al (2015), they are extremely elastic and resistant structures, which confer greater resistance to egg breaking in this species.…”

“…Another issue to be considered for the understanding of those results concerns the structural conditions hen and quail eggshells in relation to the organic matter content, which according to Pereira et al (2009) is higher in hen eggshells, in addition in both species the calcium content in the shell is around 37% of the mass of this structure. In addition, the shell of quail eggs is thinner (SHANAWAY, 1994), but the thickness of the shell membranes in relation to the total shell volume is greater as compared with that of hen eggs, accounting for 21% of the total shell thickness, while in hen eggs, they represent 11% (BARBOSA et al, 2012;SANTOS et al, 2015). Thus, based on these results, the analysis of specific gravity by the methodology used in the present study may not be adequate for measuring the shell quality in eggs of this species, assuming the need to make saline solutions with densities different from those used for hen eggs.…”

Efeito de diferentes aditivos zootécnicos sobre a qualidade de ovos em duas fases produtivas da codorna

“…A camada paliçada compreende, aproximadamente, dois terços da espessura total da casca, portanto quanto maior a sua espessura, maior será a espessura total da casca e sua resistência (Radwan et al, 2010). A espessura da camada mamilar também confere característica de resistência à casca (Hunton, 1995) e, apesar de representar menos de um terço da composição total da casca, essa é a camada responsável pelo início dos processos de quebra dos ovos (Bain, 1992 Barbosa et al, 2012;Santos et al, 2015).…”