Effect of Short Period Incubation During Egg Storage on Hatchability, Embryonic Mortality and Chick Quality

Abstract

Current experiment conducted on 5850 hatching egg (av. 59.5g) purchased from EL-KASABE for investment Shiver® Breeder farms (34 weeks old). A total of 2250 egg were assigned into 5 treatments of 450 egg representing storage periods of (0, 7, 14, 21 and 29 days) and the other 3600 egg were subdivide into 4 groups of 900 egg each according to SPIDES-short period incubation (fresh, 0, 2.5 and 5 hours) at 99.5°F. After SPIDES, treated egg placed for 2.5 hours in setter room and back into storage room at 12-16 o C and 75-85% relative humidity according to the storage time. Egg storage for 7 days had better (P≤0.05) values for fertile egg, hatchability percentages, hatch window, embryonic mortality (early, mid and late), piped and chick quality. However, storage until 29 days showed the lowest significantly (P≤0.05) percent hatchability, hatchability for fertile egg, long incubation time, highest number of total embryonic morality and lowest number of chick quality. SPIDES (2.5 h) recorded higher hatchability traits, but SPIDES 5 hours showed the highest significantly (P≤0.05) number of early embryonic mortality and lowest number of chick quality. Accordingly, when egg stored for more than 7, 14, 21 and 29 days, it should be SPIDES-short period incubation 2.5 h every five days once, twice or fourth time during storage period to minimize the harmful impact of storage.