Effect of incubation temperature on hatching characteristics and parental sex ratio on fertility of Japanese Quail (Cortunix cortunix japonica) eggs

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of incubation temperature on fertility, hatching characteristics and to examine the effect of male to female ratio on fertility of Japanese quails (Cortunix cortunix japonica) eggs. The study was carried out at Quail Research Centre in Agro Park and in Animal Lab University Malaysia Kelantan, Jeli. A total of 90 eggs were selected from quail farm located at Tanah Merah Kelantan were incubated in incubator at 3 different temperature (36.50°C, 37.50°C, and 38.50°C). For the second experiment, total of 42 quail of 10 weeks old were randomly divided into three experimental groups with ratio of male to female of 1:3, 1:4 and 1:5. Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that incubation temperature had highly significant effect (P<0.01) on embryo mortality and hatchability (P<0.05). However, incubation temperature did not significantly (P>0.05) affect chick quality. On the other hand, the parental sex ratio had significant effect (P<0.05) on egg fertility. It is recommended that, eggs to be incubated at 37.5°C achieve highest hatching rate. Highest fertility can be achieved by allocating 1 male to 3 female in quail breeding flock.