GENETIC IMPROVEMENTS FOR PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF WHITE JAPANESE QUAIL UNDER SELECTION PROGRAM

Numair, Mai Muhammad; Eltahawy, Waleed Salah; Abdel-Rahman, Manal Moustafa; El-Raffa, Alaa Mohamed

doi:10.21608/jaesj.2023.205557.1078

GENETIC IMPROVEMENTS FOR PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF WHITE JAPANESE QUAIL UNDER SELECTION PROGRAM

Document Type : Full research articles

Authors

¹ Animal and Poultry Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University

² Professor of Poultry, Department of Animal, Poultry, and Fish Sciences, Damanhour university

³ Professor of Plant Genetics, Department of Plant Pathology, Damanhour university

⁴ Emeritus Professor of Poultry Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University

10.21608/jaesj.2023.205557.1078

Abstract

The current study was conducted to investigate the effect of short-term selection for 6-weeks body weight (BW₆) on the growth performance of white Japanese quail. A selected line for high BW₆ and a random-bred control line were chosen from a base population of white Japanese quail. Three generations included in this study were used to estimate the heritabilities and genetic trends for traits characterizing growth. There was a significant effect of generation and line within generation (P<0.001) on body weight and daily weight gain at different ages studied. The results showed that the selected line had a significantly higher body weight at six weeks of age and daily weight gain during the growing period compared to the control line in the three generations of study. The heritability estimates derived from the sire components of variance for body weight at 6 weeks of age and daily weight gain from hatch up to 6 weeks of age were 0.38 and 0.37: respectively. The genetic trend for body weight at 6 weeks of age was about 2.02 g per generation: while for daily weight gain during the growing period: the genetic trend increased by 0.05 g/day for each generation. Results of heritability estimates: and genetic evaluation obtained in the current study indicate that body weight at 6 weeks of age and daily weight gain during growing period seem to be suitable for use as selection criteria to improve growth traits in quail’s flocks.

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