Polymorphism of Three Genes Affecting the Performance of Kurdish Quail

The current study has done on two generations of three Kurdish quail breeds, which were raised as purebreds and hybrids through crossing among them. The present study aimed to evaluate purebreds(desert, brown and white) and their hybrids for growth and egg productive traits. The genetic evaluation for these economic traits was applied. The purebreds were divided into two groups one for meat and the other for egg production. Depending on the Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP), within each group, birds were divided into two (high vs. low) production sub-groups.The molecular profile of three breeds of Kurdish quail showed polymorphism for all loci, the number of alleles recorded for the GH, IGF-I and PRL loci were (5, 4 and 5 alleles, respectively), the alleles D, C, and E show beneficial effects on growth and carcass parameters, while, the alleles B, D and D beneficial effects on egg production traits for the GH, IGF-I, and PRL loci, respectively.The brown breed with the BBCDDD genotype gave the highest number of eggs, HD% and fertility percentage.