Research Information System
International poultry Scientific Forum, Georgia, United States Of America, 29 - 30 January 2024, pp.72, (Summary Text)
Consumer interest in eggs
produced from non-cage housing systems and backyard poultry is leading to a
constant increasing trend in the number of local pure line or cross line hens
used in table egg production. The early stage of egg production including peak
period plays an important role in how a poultry flock will perform and how long
laying hens can be kept in egg production in a sustainable way. This period may
also be a good indicator of what egg quality will be like in the later stage of
the production. Therefore, this study was made to investigate the peak
period internal and external egg quality characteristics of local Atak-S,
commercial Nick Brown, pure line Susex and a local cross-line, all of similar
age. All flocks were raised in a commercial farm in standard conditions for
non-cage egg production. A total of 60 eggs from each genotype were collected
randomly from all eggs laid in a particular day at 34 and 36 weeks of age (30
eggs in each week from each genotype, 240 eggs in total). The egg quality
evaluation included egg weight, egg length, egg width, shell color (L*,a*,b*) traits,
shell thickness, yolk height, thick albumen height and yolk color. Data was
evaluated statistically using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) by the
general linear model procedure of the SPSS program. Mean separation was
conducted using the Tukey test. There were significant differences for the egg
weight of different genotype laying hens and cross line layers had
significantly the lowest egg weight. Commercial Nick Brown had significantly
the greatest egg shell thickness and the lowest L* values. There
were significant differences for a* and b * color
traits of eggs produced by different genotypes of layers. The eggs of Nick
Brown and Susex hens had significantly greater HU values than those of Atak-S
and cross-line hens but HU values of egg from all genotypes were found to be
acceptable for AA grade standard of table eggs at a score of 72 or above.
Although peak period egg quality of commercial Nick Brown was slightly superior
than the other genotypes it can be said that the overall egg
quality characteristics of local pure line and cross line were competitive with
commercial laying hens.