Japanese Quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) Husbandry: A means of Increasing Animal Protein Base in Developing Countries

Raising Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) for food can be regarded as another dimension of poultry farming as a result of increase demand for animal protein in Nigeria. The major aim of this review is to examine the challenges, potentialities and opportunities of quail production in Nigeria. This study reveals among other things that quail husbandry was introduced in Nigeria in order to expand the domestic chicken production through meat and eggs. It highlighted other unique qualities of Japanese quail over other species of poultry to include fast growth, resistant to many diseases than domestic fowl, less expensive to rear, early maturity with short gestation and generation intervals. It further reveals that they have high fecundity and their meat and eggs are renowned for their high quality protein, high biological value and low calorific contents, making it a choice product for hypertension prone individuals. Despite the challenge of high cost of concentrates, non-readily available market, inadequate knowledge and information about the advantages of eating quail meat coupled with high proportion of spoilt eggs due to infertility and embryonic mortalities in hatcheries, the Japanese quail has the potential to serve as an excellent and affordable source of animal protein in Nigeria.