Japanese quail originated from the wildlife environment and was first domesticated in Japan in 1595. Japanese quail has widely distributed in various parts of the world. This bird is characterized by its rapid growth rate, high rate of egg production, much lower space requirements, small size, good reproductive potential, short life cycle, resistance to diseases, early sexual maturity (from 39 to 50 days), better laying ability and shorter time of hatching compared with the different species of poultry. All these characteristics rendered it an excellent laboratory animal and a good economical animal protein source (for both egg and meat). Thermal stress was found to be the major limiting variable in poultry production, directly influencing bird welfare conditions. Previous research showed that heat stress in the production environment, induced by high ambient temperatures, may have a direct detrimental effect on welfare, meat quality, carcass characteristics, productivity, egg mass and egg quality. Furthermore, heat stress directly decreases quails' reproductive performance. As tiny, ground-dwelling birds, quail may appear unable to handle extreme temperatures, yet they have methods of fighting the heat. This review will help in developing and strengthening the core of the quail-based poultry sector. In addition, it provides aggregate information on the characteristics of the quail bird as a production unit in poultry farms as well as being an animal model for laboratory experiments. Also, this review provided deep insight into the domestication process and the impact of heat stress on production characteristics, which altered the domestic or Japanese quail substantially.
Keywords: Behavior; breeding biology; diseases; economic importance; feeding habitat.