Egg Production Traits and Egg Quality Characteristics in Black and Brown Plumage Color Lines of Japanese Quail

The present study was conducted to determine egg production traits and egg quality characteristics in black and brown lines of Japanese quail. A total of 500 quails comprising 400 females and 100 males obtained from two breeding centers were raised according to the standard procedure for Japanese quail. They were grouped in according to their plumage colours. Age at first egg-laying has been recorded. Egg production and hen day production (HDP) have also been calculated. Additionally, samples of 240 composite quail eggs, 60 eggs per line, have been randomly selected at the age of 88, 89, and 90 days. Those eggs were used to determine the quality of egg including egg weight, shell thickness, shell weight, shape index, air cavity, albumen index, yo lk index, Haugh unit (HU), and yolk color score. Furthermore, the data were analysed using general linear model (GLM) and Tukey’s test was p erformed to evaluate the pairwise differences among quails. The results showed that egg production traits were not different among lines, except age at first egg-laying (P < 0.0001). Moreover, brown plumage lines have higher egg weight, shell thickness, shell weight, shape index, yolk index, albumen index, HU, and yolk colour score than black plumage lines (P < 0.0001), on the other hand, egg air cavity of black plumage lines were higher than brown plumage lines, 1.71 versus 0.88 mm (P < 0.0001). It can be c oncluded that brown plumage line has better both exterior and interior qualities of egg than black plumage line. These findings may be useful to determine appropriate breeding program for laying quail in the future.