Sterility Induced in Japanese Quail by Spray Treatment of Eggs with Mestranol

• Published in: The Journal of wildlife management 1968-10, Vol.32 (4), p.879-887
• Main Authors: Wentworth, B. C., Hendricks, Barbara G., Sturtevant, Joan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Eggs; Fecundity; Female animals; Fuel oils; Incubation; Japanese quails; Male animals; Mating behavior; Mortality; Oviducts
• ISSN: 0022-541X; 1937-2817
• DOI: 10.2307/3799565

Treatment of eggs with the steroid mestranol (3-Methoxy-17α-ethynylestra-1,3,5(10)-trien-17β-ol) as a spray on eggs is a potential avian chemosterilization procedure. Eggs of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix) were treated topically at 0, 6, or 12 days of incubation with a 0.005-ml drop of fuel oil containing 2.5, 5, or 10 μg of mestranol, or before incubation with a 0.005-ml fuel oil spray containing about 5 μg of mestranol. Controls for each treatment were treated with fuel oil only. Quail hatched from mestranol-treated eggs were irreversibly sterile and sometimes anatomically intersexual. Birds from treated eggs sometimes had significantly (P < 0.005) heavier ovaries and frequently had smaller oviducts and cloacal glands than the controls. When high levels of mestranol were given early in incubation, there was also higher embryo and chick mortality. Females had higher mortality and lower fecundity than males. Fecundity data, in conjunction with weight data and the histology of secretory tissue, suggest permanent changes in the hypothalmic centers of treated birds.