Productive, reproductive performance and biochemical parameters of short-term divergently selected Japanese quail lines and their reciprocal crosses

The current study investigated the effect of short-term selection for four week body weight (BW) on performance of divergent lines of Japanese quail and their crosses. The mean of BW at hatching time, one, two, three and four week oldand BW at sexual maturity time, age at sexual maturity, number of eggs (from 50 to 100 days old), mean of egg weight, percentage of fertility and hatchability in each group (two lines and their crosses) were compared to explore the maternal and heterosis effects. The results indicated that there were significant difference between two lines for all the measured productive and reproductive traits (P