Heritability of Interior Egg Quality Traits for Japanese Quail

Abstract

In this study, heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations for internal egg quality traits of Japanese quail were estimated by using ASREML, a restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedure using a derivative free algorithm. Data were obtained from 1567 eggs collected 3 d sequentially from 584 pedigreed Japanese quails. Egg weight (EW), height (YH), diameter (YD), weight (YW), index (YI), and ratio (YR) of yolk, height (AH), weight (AW), and ratio (AR) of albumen, and Haugh unit (HU) were examined. (Co)Variance components and genetic parameters were estimated. Heritability of EW, YH, YD, YW, YI, YR, AH, AW, AR,
and HU were 0.83±0.012, 0.40±0.035, 0.50±0.032, 0.74±0.019, 0.39±0.034, 0.53±0.030, 0.40±0.034, 0.80±0.015, 0.43±0.034 and 0.38±0.035 respectively. High positive genetic and phenotypic correlation among egg, yolk and albumen mass and negative correlations between yolk and albumen ratio were detected. This result indicates that selection for increased egg weight will increase both yolk and albumen weight, but an increase in the proportion of yolk will reduce the albumen part of egg.