Desempenho produtivo e qualidade de ovos de codornas nas estações chuvosa e seca no semiárido paraibano.

Abstract

The coturnicultiire in Brazil has been consolidated as a profitable activity that does not require much investment and/or large areas for its development being considered one of the most suitable alternative for generating employment and income for small farmers. The objective of this study was to study the influence of the rainy and dry seasons, in the performance, production and quality of quail eggs in the semiarid areas. The experiment was conducted in Puxinana - PB, wherein Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) and european quails (Coturnix coturnix coturnix) were evaluated in the raising, releasing, and production plases. We evaluated six lots/quail station in phase of creates and three lots/station in the recreates, each lot with about 1.000 quails of Japanese strain and 1.000 quails of european and in the posture, the study was conducted with 2.400 birds from the two strains, distributed in completely randomized design at a factorial 2 x 2 x 3 (two strains, two stations and three ages) with 6 repetitions during phase the creates and 2 x 2 x 5 (two strains, two seasons and five ages) with three replications in recreates phase and 2 x 2 x 3 (two strains, two stations and three months) with 12 repetitions in the posture. The ambient temperature, the relative humidity of the air, the black globe temperature and wind speed were measuring during 24 hours per day using HOBO and HT-500 data loggeres, and the values obtained showed the radiant heat load and the index black globe temperature and humidity. In the raising and releasing phases the average live weight, the average live weight gain and mortality were evaluated and in the production phase the food consumption, the egg production, the food conversion per mass and per dozen of eggs, quantity of fertile eggs hatched, and the hatchability percentage. In order to quality the eggs, the following variables were measuring; egg weight, albumen weight, yolk weight, shell weight and shell thickness. The productive performance in the raising and releasing phases was satisfactory for the Japanese quails and european quails during the rainy season. The ambient temperature, the relative humidity of air, the index of black globe temperature and thermal radiation load showed average values above the ideal for quails in the raising and releasing phases during the hot hours. The european quails showed a better productive behavior during the two raising phases. No significant effect on the qualitative parameters between the rainy and dry seasons was observed. The Japanese quails were more efficient in respect of the egg quantitative characteristics than the european quails. During the rainy season the quantitative variables of the eggs, except the egg mass were better when compared to the dry season.