Genetic Parameters of Body Weight and Carcass Characteristics in Two Strains of Japanese Quail

In current research, two strains of Japanese quail consisting of 150 wild quail (50 male and 100 female birds) and 150 white quail (50 male and 100 female birds) were used as base population in Aghghala quail station. Four mating groups include group 1 (wild male×wild female), group 2 (white male×wild female), group 3 (wild male×white female) and group 4 (white male×white female) were used for producing progeny. Chicks were weighed and then slaughtered at 35 days of age. After slaughter and removing feathers, carcass seperation was carried out. The internal organs consisting glandular stomach, gizzard, Spleen, liver, heart, bursa fabricius and total digestive system weighed by scale with 0.01g accuracy. The fixed effects of sex, hatch and mating group were investigated. The variance and covariance components and genetic parameters were estimated using multiple animal model and restricted maximum likelihood with ASREML software. Sex and hatch had significant effects on body, carcass and breast weights (P