Comparative Analysis of Early Growth Performance of Two Meat Quail Populations

French giant (n = 49) quails and Savimito quails (n = 36) at two weeks old were fed at 8 am and 5 p.m. with free drinking water and 24 h light.

Six body size traits, including tibia length, chest depth, chest width, sternum length, body oblique length and tibia circumference, were measured on the 3rd and 5th week of age (12 h after stopping food).

The growth performance of two quail breeds was compared and analyzed by SPSS software, and Duncan’s multiple tests were carried out. The results were expressed in the form of average+standard error, and the regression equation of quail body weight to body size traits was established by stepwise regression method.

Table I shows comparison of body weight and body size of 3 weeks and 5 weeks old French giant quails and Savimite quails. At 3-5 weeks of age, the body weight, chest depth, body length, shank length, and sternum length of the French giant female quail were significantly higher than those of the Savimite female quail (P<0.05), while only the body weight of the French giant male quail was significantly higher than that of the Savimite male quail (P<0.05). At 5 weeks old, the shank circumference of the French giant female quail was significantly lower than that of the the Savimite female quail (P<0.05). Wei et al. (2011) showed that the body weight of Wuxi strain of French giant meat quail reached 102.15-141.25g at the third week of age, which was higher than that of French giant female quail and French giant male quail in this study (93.194-97.33g). Jatoi et al. (2015) showed that the body weight of three Japanese quail strains (Major, Kaleem, Saadat) at the 3rd week of age was slightly higher than that of the French giant quail and Savimite Quail in this study, which may be due to differences in quail breeds, feed nutrition, and feeding management. Taskin et al. (2017) showed that body weight was a very important factor in selection studies and it also increased the efficiency of the selection program with other selection features.

Table II shows the correlation coefficient between body weight and tibial length and tibial circumference of Savimite quail is not significant (P>0.05). There is a significant correlation between the tibial circumference and chest width of Savimite quail (P<0.05). In addition, there is a very significant positive correlation between other body weight and body size traits of Savimite quail (P<0.01). The breast width and breast bone length have the largest correlation coefficient of 0.791. There was a significant positive correlation between body weight and tibia length, chest width, chest depth, sternum length, body oblique length and tibia circumference in French giant quail (P<0.01). There was also a significant positive correlation between any two of the other body size traits (P<0.01). Body weight and chest depth had the maximum correlation coefficient of 0.765, followed it was the correlation coefficient between chest depth and chest width (0.715). Jiao et al. (2001) showed that the body weight of Japanese quail was moderately correlated with body length, chest width and chest depth, but weakly correlated with tibia length and sternum length. The correlations between sternum width and sternum length, between sternum length and body length of Japanese quail were weaker (r=0.2322 and 0.2055, respectively), which was not accord with the results in this study that there was a significant positive correlation between body weight and tibia length, chest width, chest depth, sternum length, body oblique length and tibia circumference in French giant quail (P<0.01).

If the letters are not the same, the difference is significant(P<0.05), but if the letters are the same, the difference is not significant(P>0.05).

Table III shows regression analysis of body weight to body size traits of meat quails. It can be seen that the regression equation of body weight to body size of Savimite meat quail is: Y=-64.849+16.153X1+27.315X2-22.436X3+11.371X4, and the fitting degree of which is 0.865. The regression equation of body weight to body size of French giant meat quail is: Y=-148.103+11.851X1+20.927X2+59.278X4, and the fitting degree of which is 0.883. X1, X2, X3 and X4 in both regression equations represented body length, sternum length, chest depth and tibia circumference, respectively. In production, the above regression equations can be used to predict the body weight of quail through its body size traits. Pang et al. (2008) showed that the regression equation of body weight to body size traits of Korean male quail was: Y=-90.395+19.690X2+20.667X4+8.899X5, and X2, X4 and X5 in the regression equation represented chest width, sternum length and body length, which are similar to the results in this study.

This research was supported by Research Cooperation Project of Henan Province (2015HNCXY012).

The authors declare no conflict of interest.