Samawal S.A.Al-Tikriti*(1) and Zaid, H. A. Dakhil(1)
(1). Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Tikrit University. Iraq.
(*Corresponding author: Samawal_1976@yahoo.com).
Received: 01/07/2020 Accepted: 10/08/2020
Abstract
This study was conducted at quail farm, Department of Animal Production, Collage of Agriculture, Tikrit University during the period from 2/10/2019 to 7/1/2020, where the experiment of selecting the level of hemoglobin in the blood was conducted, as blood samples were taken from birds at the age of 14 days after which it was divided into three groups: control group with average hemoglobin level (11.33-11.67) gm/100 ml blood, group with high hemoglobin level (above 11.67) gm/100 ml blood, and group with low hemoglobin level (less than 11.33) gm/100 ml of blood, and each group was divided into 4 replicates, and in each replicate 12 birds, which was distributed in a sexual ratio (1:3) one male for every three females. The results showed significant differences in body weight at the age of four and five weeks, body weight at the end of production, feed consumption rate and the efficiency of food conversion between the three treatments. There were significant differences in favor of treatment of genotype with a low hemoglobin level for number of eggs produced and egg mass compared to the other two treatments, while the significance was not presented with regard of average age at sexual maturity, weight of the first egg and average egg weight. The differences were also significant in fertility rate of high and low hemoglobin level treatments compared to the control.
Key words: Japanese quail, Hemoglobin, Egg production traits, Fertility ratio, Hatching ratio.
Full paper in Arabic: PDF