Comparative Study of Carcass Traits in Four Strains of Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica) at 3 to 6 Weeks of Age
Erum Bughio1, Ahmed Sultan Jatoi1*, Jibran Hussain2, Muhammad Hayat Jaspal3, Shahid Mehmood2, Hafiz Muhammad Ishaq4, Reema Bughio5 and Athar Mahmud2
ABSTRACT
This experiment was designed to evaluate the carcass characteristics of 4 different strains of Japanese quails at 3 to 6 weeks of age. In total, 2160 quail chicks were studied with 108 experimental units of each 20 chicks were applied. Birds had free access to clean and fresh drinking water through automatic nipple drinkers all the times. There was a provision of ad-libitum broiler-quail ration feeding as per NRC standard. Data on live weight, dressing percentage, keel length, keel angle, length of shank, giblets and length of intestine were calculated. ANOVA technique was used for data analysis and DMR Test for comparison of means. Significant (p<0.05) differences were observed in mean slaughter and liver weight (g) in quail birds. Significant (p<0.05) differences were noted in keel length (cm) at week 3, 5 and 6 and keel angle at week-3. A significant (p<0.05) effect was observed in mean heart weight at week 3 and 6, gizzard weight at week 4, 5 and 6 and intestinal length (cm) at week 3, 5 and 6; whereas, dressing percentage (%) and shank length (cm) differ non-significantly (p>0.05) in this study period. Imported quail strain (M) performed better in almost all the studied parameters than that of other strains of quails.
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