Beruflich Dokumente
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Ajuogu / Innovations
in Scienceinand
Science and Engineering
Engineering 1 (2011) 192-96
(2011) 92-96
Available at woaj
Department of Animal Science & Fisheries, University of Port Harcourt, P.M.B. 5323, Choba, East West Road, Port Harcourt,
Nigeria.
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Article history: The experiment was conducted to determine the effects of storing hatchable
Received: eggs at varying pre-incubation temperature environments.Four types of stor-
Available online: 3 December 2011 age environments, Refrigerator (8oc) Air conditioner (19oc) Fan (27oc) and
Room temperature C (30oc) were investigated. The Completely Randomized
Experimental Design [CRD] using three replicates of 10 eggs per group was
used. Results showed that egg weights, fertility, late embryonic deaths, dead-
in-shells, hatch of fertile eggs and weight of chicks were not significantly
affected by the varying temperature levels (P> 0.05). But early embryonic
Keywords: deaths and percentage saleable chicks were significantly affected (P<0.05). It
was concluded that storing hatchable eggs at temperatures of 8oC and 19OC
Pre-incubation, have some advantage over eggs stored at 27oC and 30oC for short term stor-
Storage, age duration
Temperature,
Hatchable chicken eggs. © 2011 woaj Ltd. All rights reserved
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Ekine and Ajuogu / Innovations in Science and Engineering 1 (2011) 92-96
pre-incubation storage conditions impair germ-cell vi- perature of 18oc. These eggs were randomly divided
ability, development and hatchability. The impairment into 12 groups of 10 eggs per group and weighed in a
may be manifested as prolongation of hatch time [3] Completely Randomized Experimental Design [CRD].
germ cell mortality [1] embryonic malformation and Three replicate groups were randomly assigned to each
growth retardation [8;9] Some of these effects have of four storage temperature treatments namely refrigera-
been attributed to deteriorative changes associated with tor (8oc), Air-condition (19oc) Fan (27oc) and uncon-
loss of water and carbon dioxide which occur more rap- trolled room temperature (30oc). The air-condition treat-
idly at higher storage temperatures [4] ment served as control.
Development of the embryo within the egg The storage treatments were applied over a
under normal conditions is a continuous process culmi- period of seven days. Temperature readings of each of
nating in hatching at the end of the incubation period. the storage environments were monitored carefully. At
Increase in temperatures above 21oc accelerates devel- the end of the pre-incubation period, the eggs were
opment while a decrease retards development. Hatching weighed and pre-warmed at a room temperature of 30oc
eggs are held by storing them at temperatures low for 24 hours and later cleaned with malachite green so-
enough to retard development, but not so low as to be lution (0.05%) before setting in a “Western type table
harmful to the embryo. top incubator. The incubator was fumigated with for-
maldehyde gas prior to the setting of the eggs. The
Earlier works by [11, 5, 13] had shown that the Temperature and relative humidity of the incubator were
optimum egg holding temperature lies within the range maintained at 37.8oc and 65% respectively. The eggs
of 10-21oc. Results from investigations have shown that were turned manually 2-3 times daily; and candled twice
decrease in hatchability resulting from storage higher at the 10th and 18th day. All suspected infertile at first
than the optimum range was greater in the eggs stored candling (10th day) were broken and grossly examined
for more than one week.[2] indicated that variations in for signs of embryonic development. Suspected cases of
on-farm egg storage temperatures of as little as 2oC can abnormal development at the second candling (18th day)
reduce hatchability by as much as 3.5%. were also broken and grossly examined. The hatch was
removed on the 2nd day of hatching to allow for proper
The most widely used method of egg storage is dry-off. The chicks were then weighed and graded.
by placing the individual eggs on plastic or fiber filler-
flats with the broad ends upper-most in a storage room Data obtained were analyzed by Analysis of
at a temperature of 10-12.7oc and relative humidity of 75 Variance (ANOVA) according to the procedure of [15].
-85%. Other methods include storing the eggs in open- Differences between treatment means were examined
sided boxes or trays in an air-conditioned room or in a using the modified Least Significant Difference (L.S.D)
refrigerator. of means according to the procedure of [14]
Effective methods of preserving germ cell vi- The design model is as thus; Xij = µ +Ti + Eij
ability in hatchable eggs are desirable to improve day- Where Xij = Observed data
old chick production. The current scarcity of suitable µ = population mean
hatchery facilities, coupled with high environmental Ti = treatment effect
temperature in Nigeria, being amplified by the global Eij = error term.
warming syndrome in recent times, tend to limit the
efficient preservation of hatchable eggs. In recognition
3. Results and Discus.ion
of this problem, this study was designed to investigate
the effects of different pre-incubation storage tempera-
The results of the effects of storage temperature
tures on the germ cell viability and hatchability of
on the hatchability of chicken eggs are presented in ta-
chicken eggs.
bles 1,2 and 3. The results showed no significant weight
differences (P>0.05) in the eggs of the various treatment
2. Material and Methods groups, before and after storage. The data however indi-
cates a non-significant reduction in weight in all the
The experiment was conducted at Rivers State
groups.
University of Science and Technology Research and
demonstration farm (Poultry section) with a total of 120 Differences between treatment in respect of
hatchable eggs, obtained from a flock of 40 weeks old
percent for fertility, hatchability, late embryonic deaths
Harco breeders. The eggs weighing between 52 and
and dead-in-shells were not statistically significant
57gm each were collected within a 5 day laying period
(P>0.05). However, early embryonic deaths and Per-
and stored in an air-conditioned room with a mean tem-
centage saleable chicks differed significantly (P<0.05)
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Ekine and Ajuogu / Innovations in Science and Engineering 1 (2011) 92-96
between the various treatments. viability when eggs are held for short periods. This
finding is supported by the observations of [7], [11] and
In the present study a short term (7 days) pre- [10], that pre-incubation temperatures and duration can
incubation storage temperature was used to examine the influence hatchability.
effects of temperature on the viability of germ cell and
hatchability of chicken eggs. The temperature levels that There were no statistical difference (P> 0.05)
were used varied between 7.6 – 30oc. between treatments in respect of late embryonic deaths,
dead-in-shells, hatchability and the initial body weights
[11] and [7] reported that the optimum tem- of the chicks. This finding seems to suggest that pre-
perature conditions for normal industrial egg storage incubation storage temperature does not have adverse
depended on the duration of storage. These workers consequences on the embryo at the later stages of devel-
consequently recommended that for better hatchability opment. All the chicks hatched from the eggs stored at
eggs held for short period should be stored at tempera- temperatures of between 27oc and 30oc were graded as
tures higher than 11-13oc, but not exceeding 28oc. How- unsatisfactory, and therefore not saleable.
ever, for longer storage periods (more than one week),
the temperature levels should be 11-13oc or lower 10 - The unsalable chicks were characterized by
12oc depending on the length of storage. unhealed navel, deformed limbs and general weakness.
Although, this study did not identify the cause of such
Results in the present study showed that lack of defects, it may be associated with storage at the higher
statistical difference in egg weight during storage indi- temperatures regime (27-30oc). It is therefore concluded
cates that dehydration was relatively uniform in all treat- that storing hatchable eggs at temperatures between 8-
ments and that this factor was not necessarily related to 19oc is superior to storage at 27-30oc over the duration
the differences observed in germ cell viability or hatcha- of seven days used in this study.
bility of the eggs. The findings of [6] and [12] supports
this suggestion, as they concluded that dehydration of an
egg during storage was not the main cause of decreased
hatchability.
TREATMENT BEFORE STORAGE (gm) AFTER STORAGE (gm) WEIGHT LOSS (gm)
Refrigerator 54.8 54.6 0.2
Air-condition 55.1 54.7 0.4
Fan 54.5 53.8 0.7
Room temp. 53.9 53.2 0.7
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Table 3: The Performance Characteristics of Each Treatment Group in Relation to Fertility, Embryonic Deaths, Hatchability and Chick Quality.
TREAT- NUMBER FERTILITY EARLY EM- LATE EM- DEAD-IN- HATCH OF HATCH OF MEAN SALE-
MENTS OF EGGS BRYONIC BRYONIC SHELLS ALL EGGS FERTILE BODY ABLE
SET DEATHS DEATHS (FULLY DE- SET EGGS WTS (qm) CHICKS
VELOPED)
No % No % No % No % No % No % No No %
b a b b
Refrigerator 30 22 73.3 4 18.2 1 5.6 5 29.4 12 40.0 12 54.6 30.9 10 83.3a
(8oc)
Room Temp.
(30oc) 30 25 83.3 14 56.0a 2 18.2 2 22.2a 7 23.3c 7 28.0c 29.0 0 0b
a, b,c, :Percentages bearing the same superscript within each column are not statistically different (P>0.05).
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