ABSTRACT:
Data from 629 meat type quails were used to study association between two different sets of traits: egg production and reproduction. Traits related to reproduction were: body weight at 42 days (W42), average egg weight (AEW), age at sexual maturity (ASM); and production traits: number of eggs produced from 42 until 182th day considering intervals of 35 days each period (P1, P2, P3 and P4). Canonical correlations were used to describe the association between these two sets of traits. The canonical coefficients indicated that egg production and reproductive traits were moderately related (0.3475). The first partial period of production (P1) and age at sexual maturity were the most relevant traits among the analyzed variables. Results show that selecting animals with lower age at sexual maturity might lead to an increase on number of eggs produced until 77 days, although it might also lead to a decrease on egg weight. Breeding programs aiming to improve quails production should consider selection strategies to decrease age at sexual maturity and then, as correlated response, increased egg production might be observed.
Key words:
animal breeding; canonical pairs; Coturnix coturnix; egg production; multivariate analysis
