Metabolic rate and egg production in Japanese quails can be predicted by assessing growth parameters of laying hens

Simple Summary:

Quails are becoming increasingly popular for their meat and eggs, and thus, the productivity of laying hens, and how that can be predicted, is of growing interest to quail producers. Because of this, we wanted to find out whether we could predict the performance of laying hens (typically expressed as the number of eggs produced multiplied by the egg weight—the so-called total egg mass) simply by looking at certain growth traits (i.e., body weight, surface area, and volume), as well as the metabolic rate among eight Japanese quail breeds. To succeed in this analysis, we developed a novel method for calculating the volume and surface area of a quail body. As a result, we derived a new mathematical formula called the metabolic index, which included the measurements of body weight, surface area, and volume. We discovered that the total egg mass in quails can be judged from these growth parameters, particularly when we examined the slope angles of the trend lines in the graphs pertaining to these parameters.

Abstract:

The aim of the current study was to assess the female metabolic rate and test the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the egg productivity of Japanese quails from eight breeds and their morphometric, or growth, parameters. Parameters measured were body weight (B), volume (V), and surface area (S), as well as the metabolism level expressed by the ratio S/V. The collected egg performance traits were as follows: the number of eggs produced (N), the average egg weight (W), and the total egg mass (M) (i.e., N multiplied by W). To measure the S and V values, a novel technique was developed that takes into account the similarity of the quail’s body to an ellipsoid. An analysis of the relationships between productivity indicators allowed us to introduce a new index called the metabolic index, B·S/V, based on all three main growth parameters in quails. Using the values of this index, we were then able to judge indirectly the level of quails’ egg productivity. We went on to assess the N, W, and M values, not only depending on the size of the bird’s growth parameters but also according to the degree of their changes during quail growth. These changes were expressed as the slope angles of trend lines describing the growth process data. This approach produced more accurate results for predicting the egg productivity in terms of W and M.