• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1783-1790
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• 2007

The genetic diversity of domestic quail and two wild quail species, Japanese （Coturnix coturnix）and Common quail (Coturnix japonica), found in China was studied using microsatellite DNA markers. According to a comparison of the corresponding genetic indices in the three quail populations, such as Polymorphism Information Content (PIC), Mean Heterozygosity ($\bar{H}$) and Fixation Index, wild Common quail possessed rich genetic diversity with 4.67 alleles per site. Its values for PIC and $\bar{H}$ were the highest, 0.5732 and 0.6621, respectively. Domestic quail had the lowest values, 0.5467 and 0.5933, respectively. Wild Japanese quail had little difference in genetic diversity from domestic quail. In addition, from analyses of the fuzzy cluster based on standard genetic distance, the similarity relationship matrix coefficient between wild Japanese quail and domestic quail was 0.937, and that between wild Common quail and domestic quail was 0.783. All of these results showed that the wild Japanese quail were closer to the domestic quail for phylogenetic relationship than wild Common quail. These results at the molecular level provide useful data about quail's genetic background and further supported the hypothesis that the domestic quail originated from the wild Japanese quail.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1421-1423
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• 2003

Cross fertility between wild Japanese quail and domestic quail was explored in an experiment conducted on 18（3♂, 15♀）wild Japanese quails in Weishan Lake area, 18（3♂, 15♀）medium-sized domestic quails and 18（3♂, 15♀）pint-sized domestic quails, which were divided into nine groups. This study demonstrated that wild quail could succeed in crossing with domestic quail,producing fertilized eggs and hatching first filial generation. The findings indicated that there were no reproduction isolation between the wild Japanese quail and domestic quail, and that the best cross combination was between wild male quail and medium-sized domestic female quail, in which the fertility rate and hatchability of fertilized eggs amounted to 42.86% and 29.63% respectively. Based on the results, a new way could be adopted to protect, exploit and utilize genetic resources of wild quail.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.476-482
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• 2013

The present study makes an investigation into expression of genes related to cardiac development in chicken, quail and chicken-quail hybrids during the early stage of embryogenesis. Real-time PCR was used to detect mRNA expressions of Nkx2-5, GATA4 and TBX5 in the heart of chicken, quail and chicken-quail hybrids embryos during the 3rd to 7th days of incubation. Results showed that NKX2-5 mRNA displayed a similar expression trend in chicken, quail and chicken-quail hybrids. The initial and highest expression of Nkx2-5 was focused on the 3rd day of incubation, then it declined till 5th day of incubation, thereafter, it fluctuated. Expression of Nkx2-5 gene in quail was significantly higher than in chicken and chicken-quail hybrids, and no significant difference was observed between the two latter species. GATA4 mRNA showed a similar expression trend between chicken and quail, which displayed a steady increase from 3rd to 6th d, then, the expression level decreased. However, GATA4 mRNA expression in chicken-quail hybrids was significantly higher than that in chicken and quail from 3rd to 5th d (p<0.01), but significantly lower than that in chicken and quail during the later stage of the experiment (p<0.05), due to the dramatic drop from 5th d onwards (p<0.01). TBX5 mRNA expression in chicken and quail showed the same trend as GATA4 expressed in the two species. Furthermore, TBX5 expression in chicken-quail hybrids was significantly higher than that in chicken and quail during the whole course of experiment, although relatively lower TBX5 expression was detected in the early stage. In conclusion, Nkx2-5, GATA4 and TBX5 genes showed dynamic changes during the process of cardiac development in chicken, quail and their hybrids embryos. In addition, the expression trend in chicken was similar to that in quail, and there was no significant difference for gene expression level, except NKX2-5. However, expression of these genes in chicken-quail hybrids was significantly different from their parents, the difference mechanism needs to be further explored.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.103-111
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• 2017

The quail (Coturnix japonica) has been used as a model animal in many research fields and its application is still expanding in other fields. Compared to the chicken, the quail is quicker to reach sexually maturity, has short generation intervals, is easy to handle, requires less space and feed, and is sturdy. In addition, it produces many eggs and the research tools developed for chicken can be applied directly to quail or with some modifications. Due to recent advances in next-generation sequencing, abundant sequence data for the quail genome and transcripts have been generated. These sequence data are valuable sources for studying functional genomics using quail, which is one of the model animal used to investigate gene function and networks. Although there are some obstacles to be removed, the quail is the best optimized model to study the functional genomics of poultry. In many research fields, functional genomics study using the quail model will provide the best opportunity to understand the phenomena and principles of life. We review why, among many other birds, the quail is the best model for studying poultry functional genomics.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.67-71
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• 2006

A total of 120 male and 240 female quail (Coturnix coturnix Pharaoh) were used to determine the effect of feeding time on laying and reproductive performance of Pharaoh quail. They were fed ad libitum between 09:00 to 17:00 or full day, daily. Each female-male pair was housed in multiple-bird cages and colony cages. Initial and final body weight, quail-day egg production, feed consumption per egg and mortality were measured to determine laying performance of breeders. A total of 960 eggs were used to determine reproductive performance of quail in each treatment group. Eggs were incubated in a commercial setter and hatcher in standard conditions. Embryonic mortality, apparent fertility, hatchability of total and fertile eggs were calculated to determine the reproductive performance. Results indicated that feeding between 09:00 to 17:00 h reduced final body weight and egg production (p<0.001, p<0.001). Whereas, limited time of feeding improved hatchability of total (p<0.001) and fertile eggs (p<0.001) and reduced embryonic mortality (p<0.001) when compared with the effects of feeding full day. It was found that there were no significant differences for the egg production of quail housed in different cage systems. Quail caged in multiple-bird cages consumed less feed (p<0.01) compared to quail housed in colony cages. There were significant differences for the mortality (p<0.05), hatchability of total (p<0.001) and fertile eggs (p<0.001), and embryonic mortality (p<0.001) during the incubation due to main effect of cage systems. There were significant cage $systems{\times}feeding$ time interactions for hatchability of total and fertile eggs and embryonic mortality (p<0.001). As a conclusion; feeding from 09:00 to 17:00 reduced laying performance of quail and improved the reproductive traits compared to full day feeding of quail breeders. But, further investigations are needed to determine the optimum length of feeding time and egg production of breeders in quail fed limited time must be evaluated in comparison with its beneficial or detrimental effects.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.434-440
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• 2004

The aim of this study was to evaluate effects of modified glucomannan ($Mycosorb^{TM}$) on the antioxidant profile of egg yolk and tissues of newly hatched quail after aurofusarin inclusion in the maternal diet. Fifty-four 45 day-old Japanese quail were divided into three groups and were fed a corn-soya diet balanced in all nutrients ad libitum. The diet of the experimental quail was supplemented with aurofusarin at the level of 26.4 mg/kg feed in the form of Fusarium graminearum culture enriched with aurofusarin or with aurofusarin plus $Mycosorb^{TM}$ at 1 g/kg feed. Eggs obtained after 8 weeks of feeding were analysed and incubated in standard conditions of $37.5^{\circ}C$/55% RH. Samples of quail tissues were collected from newly hatched quail. The main carotenoids, retinol, retinyl esters and malondialdehyde were analysed by HPLC-based methods. Inclusion of aurofusarin in the maternal diet was associated with decreased carotenoid and vitamin A concentrations in egg yolk and liver of newly-hatched quail. Furthermore, lipid peroxidation in quail tissues was enhanced. Inclusion of modified glucomannan ($Mycosorb^{TM}$) in the toxin-contaminated diet provided a significant protective effect against changes in antioxidant composition in the egg yolk and liver. It is suggested that a combination of mycotoxin adsorbents and natural antioxidants could be the next step in counteracting mycotoxins in animal feed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.527-533
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• 2013

Polyclonal antibodies labeled with a tracer have been commonly used as secondary antibodies in immunochemical assays to quantify the concentration of antibody-antigen complexes. The majority of these antibodies conjugated with a tracer are commercially available, with the exception of few untouched targets. This study focused on the production and application of mouse anti-quail IgY as an intermediate antibody to link between quail egg yolk IgY and goat anti-mouse IgG-HRP as primary and secondary antibodies, respectively. Subsequently, the produced mouse anti-quail IgY was labeled with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and its efficiency on enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was compared with that of commercial rabbit anti-chicken IgY-HRP. As an intermediate antibody, mouse anti-quail IgY was successfully produced with good affinity and sensitivity (1:10,000) to the primary and secondary antibodies. Subsequently, mouse anti-quail IgY was effectively conjugated with HRP enzyme, resulting in a secondary antibody with good sensitivity (1:10,000) to quail anti-V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus IgY. The detection limit was $10^5$ CFU/ml for both V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus. The efficiency of the produced conjugate to detect quail IgY on ELISA was comparable to that of the commercial rabbit anti-chicken IgY-HRP, and hence the produced and labeled mouse anti-quail IgY-HRP can be used as a secondary antibody to detect any antibody produced in quail.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.185-193
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• 2015

A dramatic decline in the abundance of the scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) has been observed across most of its geographic range. In order to evaluate the influence of land cover patterns and their changes on scaled quail abundance, we examined landscape patterns and their changes from the 1970s to the1990s in two large ecoregions with contrasting population trends: (1) the Rolling Plains ecoregion with a significantly decreased scaled quail population and (2) the South Texas Plains ecoregion with a relatively stable scaled quail population. The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Land Use/Land Cover data were used to quantify landscape patterns and their changes based on 80 randomly located $20{\times}20km^2$ windows in each of the ecoregions. We found that landscapes in the Rolling Plains and the South Texas Plains were considerably different in composition and spatial characteristics related to scaled quail habitats. The landscapes in the South Texas Plains had significantly more shrubland and less grassland-herbaceous rangeland; and except for shrublands, they were more fragmented, with greater interspersion among land cover classes. Correlation analysis between the landscape metrics and the quail-abundance-survey data showed that shrublands appeared to be more important for scaled quail in the South Texas Plains, while grassland-herbaceous rangelands and pasture-croplands were essential to scaled quail habitats in the Rolling Plains. The decrease in the amount of grassland-herbaceous rangeland and spatial aggregation of pasture-croplands has likely contributed to the population decline of scaled quails in the Rolling Plains ecoregion.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.831-836
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• 2001

Little information on the cholesterol content and the fatty acid composition of avian species other than chicken is available. This study was conducted to compare the yolk cholesterol content and the fatty acid profiles of some wild birds maintained in captivity on commercial grain-based chicken diets. The concentration of cholesterol/g of yolk as well as the total yolk cholesterol per egg varied among species. Yolk cholesterol concentration, expressed as mg/g of yolk, was highest in chukar, followed by pheasant, guinea fowl and quail, while total yolk cholesterol in an egg was highest in guinea fowl, followed by pheasant, chuckar and quail. An inverse relationship between yolk cholesterol concentration and egg weight was observed among species with an exception of quail. Although major fatty acids of egg yolk were oleic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid and stearic acid in all birds, the composition varied among species. Chukar and quail showed higher oleic acid content than pheasant and guinea fowl, while showing lower linoleic acid. Fatty acids of chukar and guinea fowl eggs were more saturated than those of pheasant and quail. Chukar and especially quail had higher monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) than pheasant and guinea fowl; in quail egg 51.6% of total fatty acids were MUFA. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), essential fatty acids (EFA) and the ratio of PUFA to saturated fatty acid (P/S ratio) were higher in pheasant and guinea fowl than in chukar and quail. Differences in fatty acid profile of triglyceride (TG) among birds were largely similar to those of total lipid. In comparison to TG, phosphatidyl choline (PC) was low in MUFA while high in saturated fatty acids (SFA), PUFA, P/S ratio and EFA. PC was most saturated in guinea fowl egg yolk, followed by chukar, quail and pheasant. PUFA, P/S ratio and EFA in PC were highest in pheasant followed by chukar, guinea fowl and quail. PE was distinguished from PC by its high contents of stearic acid, eicosapentenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexenoic acid (DHA) while low in palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids. In egg yolk of all birds MUFA was significantly lower in PE than in PC except in quail. Compared to other species, quail had a considerably higher content of MUFA in PE at the expense of SFA and PUFA.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.287-296
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• 2001

The acute oral LD5O toxicity values of isazofos, pyraclofos, diazinon and methomyl were determined for Japanese quail based on OECD guideline. The $LD_{50}$ of isazofos, pyraclofos and diazinon was 16.26 mg/kg, and 7.11mg/kg body weight In female respectively. And the $LD_{50}$ of each chemical in male was 21.44, 35.64, 8.28 mg/kg body weight respectively. Diazinon was the most susceptible compounds to Japanese quail in both sexes. The $LD_{50}$ of methomyl was 21.24 mg/kg body weights in female, and 28.28 mg/kg body weight in male respectively. Diazinon, isazofos and methomyl were more toxic In the female than male. The symptoms of poisoning were similar in quails administrated with each chemicals. The clinical sign in Japanese quail were ataxia, salivation, diarrhea, ruffled feather and convulsion at dead point. There were severe hemorrhage and catarrhal inflammation from duodenum to ileum In all compounds. In Japanese quail treated with organophosphorus and carbamate compounds, brain acetylcholinesterase was inhibited by 88-96. The recovery was not observed after 5 h in sublethal dose.