Abstract
A study was conducted at the National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, Nigeria, from September 1996 to March 1997 to estimate heritabilities and genetic correlations of some egg quality traits in Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica). Four hundred quail eggs were randomly collected from a breeder stock, hatched, and brooded for four months. At the end of the sixth month, at the beginning of egg lay, the birds were transferred to a laying cage. One sire was mated to three dams and at least four eggs per dam were collected. A total of 200 dams and 600 eggs were eventually used for egg quality determination, resulting in unequal number of eggs per dam. Only eggs collected in the morning were used in the analysis. Heritabilities of egg quality traits from sire variance components were mostly low to moderate (0.01-0.48) and genetic correlations between egg quality traits were mostly moderate to high (0.35-1.33, absolute values only).
