Effect of Ascorbic Acid and Cooling During Egg Incubation on Hatchability, Culling, Mortality, and the Body Weights of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

Five experiments involving 3,100 settable eggs with living embryos of commercial broiler parent stock were conducted to determine the effect of ascorbic acid (AA) and cooling during egg incubation on embryonic weight, hatchability, percentage of cull chicks, embryonic mortality, and body weights of the hatched chicks. The treatments were carried out at 15, 15, 17, 11 and 19 d of incubation for Experiments 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. The treatments for the experiments were as follows: 1) eggs injected with 0.1 mL of sterile saline solution; 2) eggs injected with saline containing 0.5, 1, 3, and 12 mg of AA per egg; and 3) control for Experiment 1; 1) eggs injected with 3 mg of AA per egg; 2) eggs cooled at 22 C for 24 h; and 3) control for Experiments 2 and 3; 1) eggs injected with 3 mg AA per egg; and 2) control for Experiments 4 and 5. Ascorbic acid at a dose of 3 mg during egg incubation improved hatchability and body weight, and decreased number of cull chicks, whereas a dose of 12 mg decreased embryo weight and hatchability and increased the number of cull chicks and embryonic mortality. Injection of AA hatchability improved when injected on Days 11 and 15 of incubation; effects diminished if AA was injected on Day 19 of incubation. Cooling eggs at 22 C for 24 h had no significant effect on any of the variables studied when compared with controls. Comparison of AA injection at a dose of 3 mg per egg and egg cooling to 22 C for 24 h at 15 to 17 d of incubation led to the conclusion that AA had two advantages over cooling. These advantages were 1) low embryonic death and 2) greater chick weight at hatch and on Days 15 and 17 of incubation.

Effects of Ascorbic Acid Injection in Incubated Eggs Submitted to Heat Stress on Incubation Parameters and Chick Quality

“…Our data do not agree with the findings of Pires et al (2011), who obtained higher hatchability when eggs were injected with 1% AA. The dose-dependent effect of AA on hatchability was also recorded by Zakaria & Al-Anezi (1996), Elibol et al (2001), Ipek et al (2004), and Nowaczewski et al (2012), who obtained better results when eggs were injected with 3 and 6 mg of AA. However, those authors injected this vitamin at later stages of incubation, indicating that its effects on in-ovo development varies with its dose and stage of embryo development at the time of injection.…”

“…The in-ovo injection of nutrients may be used to improve hatchability and hatchling quality (Ohta et al, 2001).For instance, the injection of vitamins in ovo has been applied to improve hatchability and hatchling body weight (Robel & Christensen, 1991;Robel, 1993).Ascorbic acid (AA, vitamin C) has shown dosedependent positive effects on hatchability and hatchling body weight (Zakaria & Al-anezi, 1996;Pires et al, 2011;Ghonim et al, 2009;Mohammed et al, 2011;Nowaczewski et al, 2012) when eggs are incubated or not under intermittent heat stress. However, the effects of the injection of AA pre-incubation of eggs incubated under continuous heat stress on embryo development and hatchling quality are not known.…”

In ovo feeding with β-hydroxy β-methylbutyrate and broilerperformance, intestinal health, and immunity status

“…The aim of in ovo feeding studies is the enhancement of intestinal development by enteric modulators such as β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB). In ovo administration of 3 mg of ascorbic acid on days 11-15 of incubation caused a reduction in the rate of embryonic death and cull chicks (1). In a similar study the control and experimental groups were not affected differently by the same experiment (2).…”

Effect of In-Ovo Ascorbic Acid Injection on the Bone Development of Broiler Chickens Submitted to Heat Stress During Incubation and Rearing

“…There are several studies on the effects of high incubation temperatures on in-ovo development (Wineland et al, 2000;Lekrisompong et al, 2007;Lourens et al, 2007;Molenaar et al, 2011) and on the in-ovo injection of ascorbic acid (Zakaria & Al-Anezi, 1996;Ghonim et al, 2009;Mohammed et al, 2011;Nowaczewski et al, 2012) in broilers. However, there are no studies on the in-ovo injection ascorbic acid and the subsequent submission of the eggs to heat stress during incubation.…”