The effect of the selection for the age trait at sexual maturity of two generations in the productive performance of Black Japanese quail bird

Abstract

This study was conducted in the Field of Department of Animal Production belonging to College of Agriculture, University of Tikrit for the period from 1/10/2013 until 1/6/2014 to determine the effect of the selection for the age trait at sexual maturity of black Japanese quail bird on some productive traits, in the study, A 60 birds were used from the assigned herd of the previously mentioned Department. The birds were individually distributed in cages and recorded the date of the first egg for each female. The selected females were divided into three groups: early, medium and late age at sexual maturity. Each group included five families with one male and three females per family. The total number used in the study was 15 males and 45 females. The eggs were hatched to produce the sons's generation according to their groups and their families, the productive characteristics were recorded for both parents and sons. The results showed significant superiority of late sexual maturity group in the average body weight at sexual maturity compared to early sexual maturity group. The early sexual maturity group has excelled in the trait of the average egg production and feed consumption compared to the medium and late sexual maturity group. The early sexual maturity group has excelled in the trait of the average egg production and feed consumption compared to late and medium sexual maturity group. The early and medium sexual maturity group excelled in egg mass and dietary conversion efficiency compared with late sexual maturity group, while no significant difference was observed in the average weight of the first egg and the weight of eggs between the selected groups of early, medium and late age at sexual maturity.