Keeping Japanese quail is an economic way for producing egg, because of their early sexual maturity, high egg production, resistance to most of poultry diseases and great persistency in high yield. The objective of current study was to estimate genetic parameters for age (ASM) and weight at sexual maturity (WSM), mean egg weight (MEW), egg number (EN) from 9 to 12 weeks and body weight at 12 weeks of age (BW12). Total of 8,218 records were collectedfrom 1,212 pedigreed quails in poultry research station of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in Iran. A multivariate animal model with restricted maximum likelihood procedure was applied to estimate heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations for egg production traits using ASREML software. Heritability of ASM and WSM were 0.08 and 0.36, respectively. Heritability estimates of MEW from 9 to 12 weeks of age were ranged from 0.18 to 0.59 and heritability of EN from 9 to 12 weeks of age were ranged from 0.11 to 0.22. Heritability of BW12 was also 0.48. High negative genetic correlations were found between ASM and EN from 9 to 12 weeks of age (from –0.74 to –0.89). Genetic correlations between MEW and EN at different weeks of age ranged from negative to positive values (–0.28 to 0.45). Positive genetic correlations were also found between WSM and MEW from 9 to 12 weeks of age (from 0.65 to 0.94). Based on present results, weight at sexual maturity, egg number at 9–12 weeks and mean egg weight at 12 weeks are the most important traits and selection for these traits improves egg production in Japanese quail.

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