Aim: The present study was designed to evaluate the safety of seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L. Elaeagnaceae) leaves added in the diet of Japanese quail. Materials and Methods: A total of ninety quail chicks were randomly divided into 2 groups and fed a standard quail chick mash added with or without 2% SBT leaf powder (Group SX), and a standard quail chick mash (Group CX, control) for 21 d...

Adult mallard ducks and northern bobwhite quail were exposed to 0, 10, 50, or 150mg perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS)/kg in the diet for up to 21 weeks. Adult health, body and liver weight, feed consumption, gross morphology and histology of body organs, and reproduction were examined. Due to mortality, birds exposed to 50 or 150mg PFOS/kg feed were terminated by Week 7. In quail, the lowest obs...

Most laboratory studies of mate choice use affiliation as a surrogate measure for actual choice of a partner for copulation. In a series of recent studies using affiliation as a dependent variable, we showed that the tendency of both male and female Japanese quail to affiliate with members of the opposite sex is profoundly affected by seeing them mate with others: female quails show an increase...

Japanese quail selected for reduced (low-stress, LS) rather than exaggerated (high-stress, HS) plasma corticosterone response to brief restraint have consistently shown greater cloacal gland (CG) development, an androgen-dependent trait. In this study, the effects of testosterone implants on levels of plasma testosterone and CG development in castrated LS and HS quail were determined. Stress-li...

PURPOSE To investigate carotenoid content in the retina of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), for comparison with carotenoids in human retina, and to assess the effects of different saponification procedures on the recovery of quail retinal carotenoids. METHODS Extracted retinal carotenoids were saponified with methods adapted from recent studies, then identified and quantified with reverse-...

Our aim was to examine changes in heart rate (fh) during the embryonic and posthatching periods of the smallest precocial avian species, Coturnix chinensis. In experiment I, repeated measurements of mean fh were made for individual quail by ballistocardiogram (BCG) during incubation, and by both piezo-electric film and electrocardiogram (ECG) during the posthatching period (resting and thermone...

Developmental biology research has used various avian species as model organisms for studying morphogenesis, with the chick embryo being used by the majority of groups. The focus on the chick embryo led Hamburger and Hamilton to develop their definitive staging series nearly 60 years ago and this series is still the mainstay of all laboratories working with avian embryos. The focus on the chick...

The quality of Pharaoh quail eggs obtained at 8, 13, 18 and 23 weeks of age was evaluated. Eggs laid by the oldest quail were characterized by the greatest weight (12.2 g), length (32.6 mm), width (25.8 mm) and shell surface area (25.3 cm2). The lowest shell weight was found in eggs from the youngest quail (0.9 g), and the lowest shell proportion (8.2%) was characteristic of eggs from the oldes...

In previous experiments, we have demonstrated that limb buds engrafted during embryonic life at E4, between MHC-mismatched chick embryos, are not only tolerated after birth, but induce in the recipient a state of split tolerance toward cells expressing the donor MHC haplotype: donor's skin grafts are permanently tolerated while a proliferative response of host's T cells is generated in MLR by d...

Adult Japanese quail display left-eye/right-hemisphere dominance in visually guided sexual tracking. In 2 experiments, the authors set out to answer if this functional cerebral asymmetry is modifiable by posthatch monocular deprivation. In Experiment 1, the left or the right eye of 2-day old quail were closed for 70 days. Quail were run in a left- or a right-turning runway to obtain access to a...