Influence of temperature, humidity, turning and age of the breeder on the hatching of eggs of Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

• Grant number: 10/00003-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2010
• End date: October 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Macari
• Grantee: Marcos Macari
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

There are few studies on the physical conditions of incubation of quail eggs, and therefore they are mostly based on studies with broiler. The goal of this trial is to evaluate the effects of temperature, humidity and turning frequency on hatchability and characteristics of the egg along the reproductive life of Japanese quails breeders. Therefore, the aim of this study is to provide a strong scientific basis to obtain the best profile and quality of hatching quail chicks. This project will be divided into three experiments, in which four data collection period during the productive life spam of female quail. In the first experiment must be hatched 7200 fertile eggs that will be submitted to three temperatures schedule (36.5, 37.5 and 38.5 °C) and two relative humidity (60 or 70%) using the factorial 3 x 2. From the optimal values for these parameters, there will be a second trial with 3600 fertile eggs, which will be tested in different turning frequencies during incubation (96, 48 and 24 times a day). In experiment 3 will be used 6000 fertile eggs to evaluate the effect of turning in five days periods (up to the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th days of incubation) on the indexes of incubation. In all experiments will be used more than 200 eggs to carry out the analysis of egg quality, and 60 eggs to determine the shell conductance. (AU)