Abstract
The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of heterosis on several productive traits of Japanese quail, Coturnix coturnix japonica. Two quail lines selected over 19 generations for increased or decreased body weight at 6 weeks of age, reciprocal crosses of these selected lines and a randombred control population were used. The results obtained are as follows. Positive heterosis was significant in only fertility of the high parental male×low parental female, but remarked negative heterosis was observed in hatchability of crosses. On the contrary, positive heterosis was observed in rate of raising at 1 week and 6 weeks of age. Mean body weight of crosses at 6 and 10 weeks of age were equal to the mean of the two parental lines. Age at first egg, egg numbers, egg weight and egg production of crosses were approximately similar to those of the better parental line.
