Hatching and post-hatching performances of Indonesian native chicken eggs infused saline solution

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of infusing sterilized physiological saline on the hatching and post-hatching performances of the eggs of Indonesian native hen aged 60 weeks reared in the University Farm, which included hatchability, weight of newly hatched, hatching time and growth of the chicken up to 8 weeks of age. In accordance with a Completely Randomized Design (2 treatments, with 3 different times of incubation as replication - 20 eggs per treatment per replication), a total of 120 fertile eggs of approximately the same weight (46.53 ± 2.87 g) with live embryos which resulted from candling at d 7 of incubation was used, and 60 eggs were subject for the saline infusion. All eggs were sterilized using 70% ethanol, numbered and weighed before incubation, then incubated according to standard hatchery practices. The saline solution was infused through a small hole made manually at a little bit above the narrow end of the egg. The results indicated that infusing saline was significantly reduced hatchability of the egg from 84.83 ± 1.89 to 79.68 ± 2.71%. Despite the weight (g) of newly hatched chick was not significantly affected by infusing saline, the relative weight of hatched chick (%) was significantly increased from 70.69 ± 1.09 to 73.81 ± 1.18. Infusing saline into the albumin resulted in a shorter time required for hatching processes; even though it mostly occurred between d 20 and d 21 of incubation. Growth performance was indicated by a significantly heavier body weight of male chicken, in particular, resulted from the treated eggs (896.25 ± 30.14 vs 985.62 ± 47.61 g). In conclusion, the present results demonstrate that infusion of sterilized physiological saline into the eggs of the Indonesian native chicken improved hatching and post-hatching performances.