Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, College of Veterinary Science, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad - 500 030 (A.P.).
A study was conducted to determine the feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, feed intake per dozen eggs and per kg egg mass in two strains of Japanese quails under selection for high 4-week body weight. The overall mean feed intake during 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 weeks of age was 39.39, 115.87, 153.53, 188.12, 209.29 and 240.55 g respectively, whereas the weight gain was 22.85, 45.97, 51.63, 53.08, 45.35 and 40.91 g at respective ages. The overall least squares means for FCR were 1.67, 1.24 and 1.45 during 7–10, 11–14 and 7–14 weeks of age, respectively. The overall means for feed intake per dozen eggs and per kg egg mass from 7–30 weeks of age were 750.93 and 4,070.05 g, respectively. The heritability estimates of feed intake were low to medium 0.01±0.001 to 0.29±0.03 from 7–14 weeks of age, for weight gain the estimates ranged from low to high whereas, for FCR the heritability estimates were low to medium. (0.03±0.01 to 0.48±0.02) in Black and low to high (0.02±0.004 to 0.59±0.01) in Browns. The heritability of feed intake per dozen of eggs were observed to be 0.40 to 0.67 and these estimates were observed to be low for feed intake per kg egg mass. The genetic correlations of feed intake 7–14 with weight gain 7–14 was significantly (P<0.01) positive (0.74) and with FCR 7–14 weeks negatively associated (−0.85). This study revealed that due to large variability in feed intake, the use of individual feed records should enhance the genetic improvement of efficiency of feed utilization.
Feed consumption, weight gain, FCR, growth rate, Japanese quail
