Effect of plumage colour and estimation of variance components of bi-weekly growth traits in Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

Abstract

The present investigation was undertaken in black and white quails for studying the effect of plumage colour,estimating genetic parameters and fitting non-linear regression model to growth curve in white and black Japanese quails. White quails were significantly heavier in comparison to black quails across age groups indicating association of plumage colour with growth rate. The body weight variables measured at bi-weekly intervals when considered as a single variable had low repeatability indicating they were genetically not identical variables. Paternal half-sib estimates of heritability indicated higher additive variance in white quails in comparison to black quails. Phenotypiccorrelation estimates between bodyweights at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks of age, ranged from medium to high indicating favourable correlated response in bodyweight variables. Gompert curve had very good fit with the data (99.6%) and similar curve parameters were estimated in both quail varieties. Point of inflection (IPT) was similar in both quail varieties and was 3.46 (black) and 3.44 weeks of age (white). The estimates of different growth parameters indicated the favourable effect of selection in these quail lines. Results indicated that growth curve estimates can be used for developing future breeding strategies in quails.

Effect of Non-genetic Factors on Growth and Production Traits in Two Strains of Japanese Quails

“…Our findings are supported by various researchers (Sezer et al, 2006;Devi et al, 2010;Bagh et al, 2016) who also observed gradual increase in body weight for both sexes and males were lighter as compared to female Japanese quails. Similarly, consistent increase in the mean body weights from hatch to 10 th weeks was observed by Dash et al (2018) in white and black Japanese quails. Previous studies have also reported significant effect of different color varieties (Rahman et al, 2010) and gender (Akbarnejad et al, 2015) on body weight in Japanese quails.…”