Comparison of Production Performance, Carcass and Egg Characteristics, Egg Production and Hatching Characteristics of Three white, Gray and Brown Varieties of Japanese Quails

Due to increasing in demand for quail products, including eggs and meat, and the cost-effectiveness of producing this product, quail breeding has found a special place in the poultry industry. Japanese quail is a diverse type of poultry that has unique characteristics such as delicious and nutritious meat and high egg production. In fact, high activity and movement in quails increases the storage of glycogen in their muscle tissues, which makes the meat of this bird very delicious, like that of hunting birds. The value of protein in the meat of this bird is 24.91%, while the rare amino acids that are not found in other proteins are abundantly found in the meat of this bird. The efficiency of converting feed into meat production of Japanese quail can play an essential role in the economy of raising this bird. Among the populations related to the Japanese race, the brown, white and gray populations are more widespread. However, there is not much documented information about the economic and functional characteristics of these and other Japanese quail populations in the country. This research was conducted in order to compare production performance, carcass characteristics, and egg laying characteristics and hatching percentage of three varieties of white, gray and brown Japanese quail.

This experiment was conducted with 3 treatments and 4 replicates and a total of 360 Japanese quail up to 42 days of age, with the same rearing conditions and diet in a completely randomized design. During the experiment performance parameters were recorded. Experimental treatments include white population of Japanese quail, brown population of Japanese quail and gray population of Japanese quail. At the end of the test period (42 days), 3 quail that were close to the average weight of the flock were selected from each repetition. After slaughtering, the characteristics of the carcass (carcass, breast and thigh) were measured. Then, after the start of laying, 144 Japanese quails (with the ratio of 3 to 1 female to male) were reared in cages to measure the egg characteristics, and the hatchability percentage. After the birds reached the laying age, 3 eggs were selected from each experimental unit and the quality characteristics of the eggs such as average egg weight, egg mass, specific gravity, Haw unit and egg shell thickness were measured. Also, to measure and calculate the percentage of hatching, 24 eggs were selected from each replication, and then the eggs with unfavorable appearance characteristics such as (bad shape, calcium shell, too big and too small eggs, green shell, etc.) were removed, then they were disinfected with formaldehyde gas, and then they were transferred to special combs for eggs. The quail eggs were transferred into the incubator. After transferring the eggs to the incubator, on the 14th day of incubation, the eggs were transferred from the setter to the hatcher, and on the 17th and 18th days of incubation, the newly hatched chicks were removed and the percentage of chicks hatched of each treatment was calculated.

The results of the experiment showed that the experimental treatments had no significant effect on the amount of feed consumption and feed conversion ratio in different periods, but had a significant effect on the daily weight gain in the final periods and the entire breeding period (p<0.05), so that white quail had the highest average weight gain. Also, the results showed that the experimental treatments were significant on the efficiency of carcass percentage in different varieties, so that the white strain has the highest carcass percentage (p<0.05), but different strains had a significant effect on other characteristics. There were no carcasses. The results showed that there was a significant difference between different varieties of Japanese quail on white height, shell weight, haw unit and mass weight in weeks 16 to 17 (p<0.05). So that the highest amount of Haw unit and white height is related to the brown strain and the lowest is related to the gray strain, the white variety had a higher mass weight than other varieties, and also the highest amount of shell weight is related to the gray variety and the lowest It is related to brown treatment. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the percentage of hatchlings between different Japanese quail populations.

The results of the present experiment showed that there was a significant difference between different varieties of Japanese quail in different traits, so that the white variety of Japanese quail has the highest weight gain and also has a better carcass percentage than the gray and brown varieties. On the other hand, the white variety of Japanese quail showed the highest quality in egg quality, including egg unit and mass weight. Therefore, it can be concluded that in this experiment, the white variety of Japanese quail showed better and more suitable conditions than the brown and gray varieties of Japanese quail in terms of growth performance and egg quality traits.