Vol. 13, Issue 1 (2024)

Author(s):
Santosh Marandi and Raj Narayan

Abstract:
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the egg production and quality traits of offsprings produced by a complete 4 x 4 diallel cross of Japanese quails. The experiment involved 4 strains namely, Cari-uttam (CU), Cari-ujjwal (CJ), Cari-shweta (CS) and Cari-pearl (CP). A total of 16 genetic groups viz. four purebreds (CU, CJ, CS and CP), six crossbreds (CUxCJ, CUxCS, CUxCP, CJxCS, CJxCP, CSxCP) and six reciprocals (CJxCU, CSxCU, CPxCU, CSxCJ, CPxCJ and CPxCS) were obtained from this cross. 40 Female laying birds from each group were transferred to individual laying cages at 5thwee k of age for further quantitative traits recording. Age at first egg was significantly lower in cross-breds (36.88±0.21) when compared with pure breds (37.53±0.33). Among four pure bred groups, CS had the highest egg production at 8^th, 10^th and 12^th week but later at 15^th, 20^th, 25^th and 30^th week of age CJ had the highest egg production whereas CU had the highest average egg production of 6.48±0.11 at 12^th week. Amongst the different crossbreds the egg production was highest in CUxCP, CSxCJ, CUxCJ, CUxCJ, CJxCU, CJxCU and CJxCS for 8^th, 10^th, 12^th, 15^th, 20^th, 25^th and 30^th week of age respectively.