Italian X Italian

[Lilyofsalen]

I've heard that the golden gene can be hard to work with due to it being deadly in homozygous form. If I breed Italian to Italian will there be infertility issues/ hatchling death due to the golden gene? I'm trying to decide between two males: an Italian and wild. Most of my hens are Italian. Of course if one or both turns out to be aggressive then that will decide that.

I am excited, my flock is a bit over 10 weeks old and two males finally decided to start acting like males (culled due to aggression towards hens and each other). I'm thinking the rest will soon follow so I need to decide what rooster(s) I should keep.

 

[CurlyQuail]

Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the lethal gene is only present in manchurians. Then again, lots of manchurian quail are labeled as Italian, but there’s a definite difference

 

[Quaicken108]

I don’t think that two Italians have the lethal gene. One of my friends had a hen that went broody and she was an Italian as well as her mate. Some of the chicks did have difficulty hatching but out of six there was five that hatched and four that are still living.

 

[Fenrisulfr]

An Italian is heterozygous with Gold gene and Wild gene.
Manchurian is homozygous Gold.

There is a lethal factor in the Gold gene, but it has been reduced over the decades, that Manchurians are exisisting shows it.
But it is still there. There is no guaranty, that your line doesn't have it or how much it will effect.

If you choose a Wild-Pattern roo, you will get both, Wild-Pattern and Italians, depending which half of the gene pair will be passed by the Italian hens.

 

[Fenrisulfr]

Edit: ... if you choose an Italian roo, you will get Wild, Italian and with luck Manchurians ... but the Manchurians may only be a few exceptions.
I never had a Manchurians in two years, although I breeded Italians with Italians.

A breeder friend of mine, he has two Manchurian roos, but they are also only exceptions there.

Nice is, if you breed a Manchurian roo with Wild hens, you get 100% Italians.

 

[Fenrisulfr]

Edit 2: ... I should had mentioned, that the lethal factor only occure in homozygous birds with the Gold gene (Manchurians), when existing in the line.

As Italians are heterozygous, the lethal factor does not effect, but would be given to an offspring and would effect if being homozygous.

The risk, that you hit a line, where the lethal factor is still active, is raising the more you cross them.
Same is with Silver, as described very good by Perry Schofield in the Coturnix Corner.