 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.It is now widely used for research purposes in state, federal, university, and private laboratories.