The present study was conducted to determine egg production traits and egg quality characteristics in black and brown lines of Japanese quail. A total of 500 quails comprising 400 females and 100 males obtained from two breeding centers were raised according to the standard procedure for Japanese quail. They were grouped in according to their plumage colours. Age at first egg-laying has been re...

This study was carried out to investigate the egg production performance and egg quality characteristics of the indigenous ‎chickens reared in rural areas of two different climates of Isfahan province. Totally, 2160 indigenous chickens were studied in ‎this research. Two dominant climatic regions (cold and ‎hot) were determined for Isfahan province. In each climate, two towns and three villages...

The study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different dietary oil sources supplementation on laying hens’ performance and fatty acids profile of egg yolks. Seventy-two 23-week-old laying hens (Tetra-SL) divided into six experimental diets (four replicates and three birds per replication) in a completely randomized design for nine weeks. Experimental diets were included: 1) control (no oi...

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether taurine supplementation to laying hens would influence laying performance. In Experiment 1, a total of 120 White Leghorn hens were fed diets supplemented with 0, 0.25, or 0.5% taurine for 5 wk. Egg weight was reduced significantly by supplementing 0.25 and 0.5% taurine; however, taurine did not affect other laying performance variables. In Exp...

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of multi-enzyme on productive performance of laying hens fed different levels of safflower meal. A total of 250 Leghorn laying hens (Hy-Line W-36) 47 weeks-old were randomly assigned into 10 experimental treatments with 5 replicates of 5 birds each. Experimental treatments consisted of five safflower meal levels (0.0,...

this experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of dried lemon pulp in corn- soybean meal diets on egg production, egg traits and as well as blood metabolites of laying hens. throughout the experiment, 144 hi- line (w36) laying hens from 65 to 76 weeks of age were assigned to 4 treatments of 3 replicates each, with 12 hens per replicate. a completely randomized design ...

At the population level, redhead ducks, Aythya americana, lay as many as 75% of their eggs parasitically but at least some females lay and incubate eggs in their own nests ('typical nesting'). Parasitic egg laying by redheads was documented with remote, time-lapse photography of potential host nests, allowing histories of parasitic egg laying and typical nesting to be compiled for individual fe...

Recent evidence suggests that blue-green coloration of bird eggshells may be related to female and/or egg phenotypic quality, and that such colour may affect parental effort and therefore the nutritional environment of developing nestlings. Here we suggest that these relationships and the signal function of eggshell coloration would affect the outcome of coevolution between avian brood parasite...

From nematodes to humans, animals employ neuromodulators like serotonin to regulate behavioral patterns and states. In the nematode C. elegans, serotonin has been shown to act in a modulatory fashion to increase the rate and alter the temporal pattern of egg laying. Though many candidate effectors and regulators of serotonin have been identified in genetic studies, their effects on specific neu...