EFFECT OF BREED ON EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EGG QUALITY TRAITS OF QUAILS

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine the effect of breed on external and internal egg quality traits of quails. A total of 694 eggs comprising 349 from crossbred and 345 from Japanese quail were set for hatching in an automatic incubator to generate experimental birds. The hatch quail chicks were managed according to their breed using standard procedure until maturity and data were collected. Each of the breed served as treatment with three replicates per breed arranged in Pair plot design. Data were collected on external and internal egg quality of quails. Data collected on the egg quality were analyzed using T-Test of the SPSS statistical software version 21. The result obtained indicated that crossbred (Cotonou × Japanese) quail had significantly (P<0.05) higher egg length, egg width, egg shape index, albumen length, albumen width, yolk length, yolk width, yolk height and yolk index compared to Japanese quail. From the findings of this study, it can be concluded that crossbred performed better than Japanese quails in both internal and external qualities except on egg shell weight.