 The Japanese quail provides developing countries with a stable source of animal proteins and developed countries with a suitable alternative to chicken.However, the quail finds its true economic and commercial value in its egg production, as domesticated lines of the Japanese quail can lay up to 300 eggs a year at a very efficient feed to egg conversion ratio.A feed to egg conversion ratio of 2.62 was accomplished by the 1990s.Interest in the Japanese quail as a research animal greatly increased after 1957 due to groups at the University of California and Auburn University who proposed its value in biomedical research.