Influence of egg pre-storage heating period and storage length on incubation results

Abstract

This experiment aimed at evaluating the influence of different heating times of settable eggs of Cobb 500® broiler breeders before submitting them to different storage periods on egg weight loss, embryo mortality, and hatchability. A total number of 1,980 eggs were distributed in a completely randomized experimental design with a 3 x 3 factorial arrangement, comprising nine treatments with 22 replicates of 10 eggs each. The following factors were analyzed: pre-storage heating periods (0, 6, 12 hours at 36.92°C) and storage periods (4, 9, 14 days at 12.06°C). After storage, eggs were incubated under usual conditions, and were transferred to the hatcher at 442 hours of incubation. Eggs were weighed before heating, incubation, and transference to determine weight loss. Partial hatchability was determined at 480 hours, and total hatchability at 498 hours of incubation. Embryo mortality was determined in non-hatched eggs. It was concluded that heating eggs for six hour before storage improves incubation results as it decreases incubation length and late embryo mortality, therefore its use can be indicated in commercial operations. Storing eggs for 14 days and pre-heating for 14 days and pre-heating for 12 hours severely impair incubation results, and therefore are not recommended

Effects of Short-Term Storage or Pre-Storage Heating of Hatching Eggs from Young Broiler Breeder Flock before Incubation on Hatching Parameters and Chick Quality

“…Thus, embryo viability decreases during egg storage due to cell death, even if eggs are stored at a temperature below 20 °C (Bloom et al, 1998). However, in contrast to studies reporting that a longer heat treatment time may also be harmful to chicken embryos (Fasenko et al, 2001b;Silva et al, 2008;Reijrink et al, 2009), positive effects were found in the present study. This may be due to the fact that the breeder flock is young and the storage period is short.…”

“…When the hypoplast stage occurs before storage (Fasenko et al, 2001a;Reijrink et al, 2009), shorter incubation time, higher embryo viability and hatchability are observed. Therefore, pre-storage heating may improve the incubation results (Fasenko et al, 2001a, b;Renema et al, 2006;Silva et al, 2008). During storage, the eggs stop growing, below physiological zero (20-21 °C), at a stage characterized by complete formation of zona pellucid.…”

Effect of Heat Treatments During Hatching Eggs Storage on Hatchability Traits and Chick Quality

“…RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The current results (Table1) showed that neither the length of pre-incubation storage period nor SPIDES treatment affect the measured of internal or external egg quality traits during storage period. Similar results were observed by Silva et al (2008). They reported that internal and external egg qualities of hatching eggs were not different among three different collection days, hatching eggs were collected in three five-day intervals throughout 14 days.…”

Effects of preincubation heating of broiler hatching eggs during storage, flock age, and length of storage period on hatchability

“…It was conceivable that a longer egg storage period in experiment 1 could have yielded different results. However, a longer heat treatment period could also be harmful to chicken embryos, as the stage of embryonic development might be further advanced than the optimal stage for prolonged egg storage (Fasenko et al, 2001b;Silva et al, 2008;Reijrink et al, 2009). Nevertheless, a longer heating period has been reported to improve the hatchability of turkey eggs (Fasenko et al, 2001a).…”