Shekhmous H. Hussen^*(1)

(1). Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Duhok, KR– Iraq.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Shekhmous H. Hussen. E-Mail: sheikhmous68@gmail.com).

Received: 23/03/2020                               Accepted: 29/05/2020

Abstract

A total of 54 quail birds aged 42 days from both sexes within nine genotypes (WW, LL, DD, WL, WD, LD, LW, DW and DL) – that resulted from full diallel cross of three lines (White, Light brown and Dark brown) – were used in this research. The trial was conducted at Dept. of Animal production, college of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Duhok, KR-Iraq, 2016. The live birds were weighed (LBW) and then slaughtered to be dissected into four major parts after eviscerating; the giblets part, the whole slaughtered birds (carcass), both legs and finally the rest body (included breast and back of both sides). These major parts were weighed and calculated as ratio to LBW to be percentage (%). The findings showed that the effect of genotype, sex and their interaction were significant on all studied characteristics, except the effect of sex on giblets %. The WD cross recorded the highest carcass and body %, while the WW line achieved the highest giblets % and DL reciprocal cross resulted in the highest leg %. The males surpassed females in carcass, leg and body %; in spite of superiority of females in LBW than males. The crosses resulted from D dam, appeared the highest interaction with males for carcass, body and leg percentages; while the same line as sire was combined well with L line as dam, and interacted positively with males for giblets %. Carcass percent correlated significantly and negatively with LBW, and regression analysis illustrated a good dependency of carcass % on LBW.

 Key words: Quail, Crosses, Carcass dissection percentages.

Full paper in English: PDF