EXPRESSION OF HSP-70 IN TISSUES OF JAPANESE QUAIL (Coturnix coturnix japonica) REARED AT DIFFERENT STOCKING DENSITY

Abstract

Human pressure on agricultural land resources has lured many poultry farmers to increase the capacity of the poultry pen through increase in the stocking rate despite the high environmental temperature of the tropical environment. This study was carried out to assess the expression of heat shock protein-70 (HSP-70) in tissues of Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) reared at different stocking densities in the heat period. A total of two hundred and ninety-six Japanese quails were used for the experiment which lasted eight weeks in a completely randomized design with four treatments replicated four times. The birds were divided into four stocking densities of 252.20cm2/bird (11birds), 173.43 cm2/bird (16 birds), 132.10 cm2/bird (21birds), and 106.73 cm2/bird (26 birds) which represented treatments 1-4 respectively adopting a completely randomized design (CRD). The results revealed that the expression of hsp70 gene in quail liver, heart and brain were significantly different (P≤0.05) and highest in T4 (26 quails) with the mean values of (90.54±0.70; 74.07±1.21 and 86.07±1.17%) respectively. Quails in T3 however had a mild expression of hsp70. However, stocking densities of 173.43cm2/bird and 132.10cm2/bird could be considered for quail production without compromising the health of quails.