The Growth Performance, Heterosis Value, and Crossbreeding of Selected Japanese Broiler and Malon Quail

Abstract

This research aims to address the scarcity of broiler quail chicks with relatively large bodyweight. The present study that involved crossbreeding is expected to produce quality broiler DOQ with relatively large body weight, high efficiency, and adaptability. The crossbreeding between two different strains is often used in a production system to utilize hybrid (heterosis). This study aims to determine the growth performance and heterosis value of selected Japanese broiler quail and crossbreeding. The experiment distributed 480-day-old quails (DOQ) to four treatments and six replicates (20 DOQ each) in a Completely Randomized Design. The treatments included selected Japanese quail ♂ x selected Japanese quail ♀ (JJ), Malon♂ x Malon♀ (MM), Malon♂ x selected Japanese♀ (MJ), and selected Japanese ♂ (JM) x Malon♀. The statistical analysis employed SAS’s PROC GLM (General Linear Model) for Duncan’s test. The observed changes were feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion, and heterosis effect. This study found significant differences in feed intake, body weight gain, and feed conversion across treatments. The best performance was observed in the Malonx selected Japan (MJ) crossbreeding with a high weight gain (246.737 grams) and the lowest feed conversion (2,87) and feed (707.93 g).