Genetic Improvement for Body Weight of Japanese Quail

Aims: The small size of quail is a limited factor in many countries, because there is not a general consumption culture according to such products, so increase in the size of quail products is a necessity for such countries. In current study, selection for Japanese quail body weight at four weeks of age was performed at three generations to estimate the response to selection and realized heritability.
Study Design: Phenotypic selection
Place and Duration of Study: Animal research station of Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran, between February 2012 and November 2012.
Methodology: The selected line was chosen to increase body weight, and control line was maintained as a random-bred control. In each generation, 25 sires and 50 dams were used as parents for the next generation. Three generations of selection were performed and there were two hatches per generation. Genetic responses, realized heritability and slopes of cumulative genetic response were calculated.
Results: Results showed that response to selection and realized heritability for four week body weight after selection through three generations was 10.9 and 0.47 respectively. The mean of body weight in selected and control lines of last generation were 177.6 and 161.2, respectively. This is 10.2% cumulative genetic improvement. Results showed that genetic improvement in body weight were 4.7 and 6.2 for second and third generations, respectively.
Conclusion: this study demonstrates that 4wk body weight in Japanese quail has increased after three generation of selection and there was good genetic improvement for body weight.