Quail as a model system

Professor Rusty Lansford explains that quail make a good model system because they are small, easy to grow in a laboratory, and develop quickly.

What makes a quail a good system and why my group does a lot of research in that is that we had the choice of a quail or a chicken, our two avian systems that have been studied for a very long time. Nicole Le Douarin’s lab has done tissue transplants between quail and chicken to follow fates of different tissues. We chose a quail for our studies because they are small and so they are easy to grow in a laboratory versus a large chicken, which we would probably need a farm for. They are easier and cheaper to raise, and then they also develop quicker. They hatch in about 16-17 days versus a chicken, which is 20 to 21. They become sexually mature in 8 to 10 weeks versus a chicken, which is 5 to 6 months. So the turn over is much quicker.