The lavender plumage colour in Japanese quail is associated with a complex mutation in the region of MLPH that is related to differences in growth, feed consumption and body temperature

Table 2 Effects of family, sex and plumage colour on body weights, feed consumption, egg production and body temperature (mean ± SD) in a 3-week feed trial of 9-week old lavender (n = 51) and wild-type (n = 41) Japanese quail from 18 full-sib families

Trait	Plumage colour (*genotype*)		Percentage of the total variance explained by the model¹(R²)		Significance of the effect of plumage colour in the Full model
	Lavender (*lav/lav*)	Wild-type (*lav/+*)	Full model	Reduced model
64-d BW after 12 h fasting (g)	173.3 ± 22.2	178.6 ± 23.9	75	73	*
85-d BW after 12 h fasting (g)	181.7 ± 20.1	186.5 ± 20.3	61	59	NS
Daily feed intake (g)	24.5 ± 4.3	23.0 ± 4.0	72	65	***
BW gain in 3-week feed test (g)	8.7 ± 11.7	6.7 ± 10.0	45	44	NS
Egg number² on 3-week test	19.5 ± 2.0	18.4 ± 3.5	27	25	NS
Egg weight¹ (g)	9.8 ± 0.9	9.8 ± 1.3	62	61	NS
Residual feed intake (g)	19.2 ± 33.5	−22.8 ± 24.4	44	17	***
85-d body temperature³ after 12 h fasting (°C)	41.02 ± 0.28	41.16 ± 0.27	60	47	***

¹The Full model includes the effects of family, sex and plumage colour, and the Reduced model does not include plumage colour.
² from 23 lavender and 23 wild-type females.
³ 85-d BW was used as a covariable for the analysis of body temperature.
* p ≤ 0.05; *** p ≤ 0.001; NS not significant.

ISSN: 1471-2164