About correlations between egg production traits in Estonian Quail

• Main Authors: Aleksander Lember, Triin Visamaa, Mirjam Vallas, Irje Nutt
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Estonian Academic Agricultural Society 2016-12-01
• Series: Agraarteadus
• Subjects: Estonian Quail; quail live weight; quail egg weight; laying onset; egg laying rate
• Online Access: http://agrt.emu.ee/pdf/2016_2_lember.pdf

Estonian Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) is the only poultry breed developed in Estonia. The aim of this research was to investigate Estonian Quail production performance traits - annual egg production, live weight and its' dynamics, egg weight, laying onset and correlations between these characteristics. Performance recording data of 108 female and 108 male quails were used. Correlations between production performance traits were calculated on the basis of 74 female quails. 77 females survived up to the end of the trial (13 laying months, 364 days). Both, females and males were divided into two groups - light and heavy - according to their live weight at the age of 30 days. The mean first egg laying age (laying onset) of Estonian quail was 47.0 days, females of lighter group started laying earlier, at the age of 45.9 days and heavier quails' average laying onset was 47.9 days. The average egg weight was 13.85 g, lighter quails laid slightly lighter eggs than heavier quails, 13.76 g and 13.93 g, in light and heavy females, respectively. The average annual egg production was 260.3 in the light female group and 238.0 in the heavy group. The average live weight of adult (at the age of 92 days) female quails was 267 g (variability 176-354 g) and 216 g in males (variability 168-287 g). There were no significant correlations between live weight at 30 days and laying onset, also between egg laying rate and live weight at 30 days. The results showed a negative correlation between the age at laying first egg and annual egg production (r = -0.268, p < 0.05). Selection of quails according to their egg production in first three laying months would increase the annual egg production as eggs number laid in first 3 months positively correlated with the annual egg production (r = 0.472, p < 0.001).