Selective breeding for high and low antibody responses to inactivated Newcastle disease virus in Japanese quails.

Two lines of Japanese quail were divergently selected for high and low antibody responses after being twice injected at 4 and 6 weeks of age with inactivated Newcastle disease virus antigen. After seven generations of selection, the serum antibody level in the high line was 24% greater than the level in the unselected control lines, whereas the low line antibody level was approximately 37% less than that in the control line. The estimated heritability (H2S + D) was approximately .12 +/- .50. The realized h2, calculated from coefficient of regression formula on seven generations (G3 to G9 ), was .07.