Reproductive capacities of control bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) during one-generation reproduction studies

The Bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) is the avian model of choice for testing the reproductive impairment potential of pesticides and environmental contaminants. While the literature contains numerous reports on the effects of pesticides on eggshell development for quail, mallards and other avian species (Haegele and Tucker, 1974; Kolaja, 1977; Jenkins et al., 1974) limited control data for reproductive evaluation of pesticides can be found. This paper summarizes the control data from three one-generation reproductive studies in Bobwhite quail. One male and two female adult quail were housed in clean pens with tap water and game bird breeder ration available ad libitum. The pre-laying cycle was ten weeks in duration. The photoperiod was seven hours of light per day for the first eight weeks and was increased to 17 hours of light per day in order to induce egg laying. Eggs were collected daily for eight weeks and incubated. Biweekly, one egg from each pen was removed and used for determination of eggshell thickness. The mean reproductive indices for these studies are: Eggs cracked/Eggs laid--8.2%, Viable 11-day embryos/Eggs set--73.6%, Viable 21-day embryos/Viable 14-day embryos--98.9%, Hatchlings/Viable 21-day embryos--82.0%, 14-day survivors/Hatchlings--76.3%. The mean eggshell thickness for 144 eggs was 0.301 mm.