Abstract

Japanese quail originated from the wildlife environment and was first domesticated in Japan in 1595. Japanese quail has widely distributed in various parts of the world. This bird is characterized by its rapid growth rate, high rate of egg production, much lower space requirements, small size, good reproductive potential, short life cycle, resistance to diseases, early sexual maturity (from 39 to 50 days), better laying ability and shorter time of hatching compared with the different species of poultry. All these characteristics rendered it an excellent laboratory animal and a good economical animal protein source (for both egg and meat). Thermal stress was found to be the major limiting variable in poultry production, directly influencing bird welfare conditions. Previous research showed that heat stress in the production environment, induced by high ambient temperatures, may have a direct detrimental effect on welfare, meat quality, carcass characteristics, productivity, egg mass and egg quality. Furthermore, heat stress directly decreases quails’ reproductive performance. As tiny, ground-dwelling birds, quail may appear unable to handle extreme temperatures, yet they have methods of fighting the heat. This review will help in developing and strengthening the core of the quail-based poultry sector. In addition, it provides aggregate information on the characteristics of the quail bird as a production unit in poultry farms as well as being an animal model for laboratory experiments. Also, this review provided deep insight into the domestication process and the impact of heat stress on production characteristics, which altered the domestic or Japanese quail substantially.

摘要

日本鹌鹑起源于野生环境，1595年在日本首次被驯化。日本鹌鹑广泛分布于世界各地。这种鸟的特点是生长速度快，产蛋率高，对空间的要求低得多，体型小，繁殖潜力好，生命周期短，抗病，性成熟早（从39到50 天），与不同种类的家禽相比，产蛋能力更好，孵化时间更短。所有这些特性使它成为极好的实验动物和良好的经济动物蛋白来源（用于蛋和肉）。发现热应激是家禽生产中的主要限制变量，直接影响家禽福利条件。先前的研究表明，由高环境温度引起的生产环境中的热应激可能对动物福利、肉质、胴体特性、生产力、蛋量和蛋质产生直接的不利影响。此外，热应激会直接降低鹌鹑的繁殖性能。作为地栖的小型鸟类，鹌鹑似乎无法应对极端温度，但它们有抗热的方法。该审查将有助于发展和加强以鹌鹑为基础的家禽部门的核心。此外，它还提供了关于鹌鹑作为家禽养殖场生产单位以及作为实验室实验动物模型的特征的综合信息。此外，这篇综述还深入了解了驯化过程和热应激对生产特性的影响，这些特性极大地改变了国内或日本鹌鹑。