The effect of laying period on egg quality traits and chemical composition of Lindovskaya (Linda) geese reared under breeder conditions

Abstract

IntroductionLivestock support in recent years has enabled the introduction of various goose breeds into the Turkish poultry sector. These mainly include two broiler breeds, the Emden and Toulouse, alongside one laying breed, the Chinese goose. Random crossbreeding has been realized especially between Chinese geese and domestic geese; thus, various goose breeds and eggs other than these breeds have also been introduced to the Turkish poultry sector and they have even been reared a little. One of these breeds is the Lindovskaya.The Lindovskaya breed constitutes the majority of the goose population in Russia and was obtained by crossbreeding the domestic breeds from the Nizhny Novgorod region of Russia and breeds from China, including the Adler, Solnechnogorsk, and Gorky. Their number accounts for more than 60% of the country's geese. Lindovskaya was registered as a breed in 1994. They are heavy-bodied birds, and their feathers are generally white. They have a cone-like bump referred to as a knop on their foreheads. This bump is larger in male adult geese than it is in females. A slight swelling or dewlap is seen on their necks. Their body is deep, wide, and long. The average live weight of an adult Lindovskaya goose is 6 to 7 kg; males tend to generally be heavier than females. Females are reported to lay 40 to 50 eggs per year [1] (https://yaroslavskaya.all.biz/en/lindovskiyes-geese).Goose eggs are generally used to obtain goslings and they may be eaten as well, albeit rarely. Thus, identifying the quality traits of eggs of geese in the flock is necessary in order to use them for goslings as well as a food source. Traits such as egg weight, form index, shell weight, shell thickness, shell ratio, surface area of egg shell, shell weight per unit surface area, and shell density are used to identify the external quality traits of the eggs. Dawson and Clark [2] reported that egg weight affected the vitality of goslings as well as their walking/swimming and growth performances in the first 2 weeks. Vargare et al. [3] determined the egg weight of Landes and Hungarian geese as 153.9 and 154.2 g, respectively. The internal quality traits of eggs are identified

Estimation of the external quality characteristics of goose eggs of known breadth and length

“…The averages of the shell weight were calculated as 14.79 ± 1.76, 14.32 ± 1.57 and 18.26 ± 1.84 mm in the Native, Chinese and Linda geese, respectively, while Tilki and Inal (2004a) found Linda close to the average (19.0 ± 1.75 g) than that they had identified in their study on French White geese, the other genotypes were calculated to be lower. The values calculated for the Native and Chinese geese were close to the value (14.46 ± 0.19 g) found by Sari et al (2019) in Linda geese. The shell weight was calculated based on the egg weight and it would have been even lower if the egg weight was calculated as lower.…”

“…The average shell thickness was calculated as 0.510 ± 0.024, 0.504 ± 0.022 and 0.555 ± 0.022 mm in the Native, Chinese and Linda geese, respectively, and the average of the Native geese was smaller than the 0.72 ± 86 mm found by Saatci et al (2002). The average of the Linda geese was greater than what Sari et al (2019) found (0.48 ± 0.095 mm). The averages of the genotypes are closer to the average (0.52 ± 0.02 mm) in the study conducted by Tilki and Inal (2004a) on French White geese.…”

“…While the width and length were close to the values of the width, length and shape index (5.89 ± 0.94, 8.57 ± 1.43 and 68.82 ± 0.13 cm, respectively) identified by Rabsztyn et al (2010) in Linda geese, the shape index was low. Likewise, it is lower than the shape index value (66.34 ± 4.648 cm) reported by Sari et al (2019).…”

“…In terms of the surface area, it was smaller than the average calculated by Rabsztyn et al (2010) (140.60 ± 9.93 cm 2 ) and larger than the average calculated by Sari et al (2019) (117.94 ± 0.84 cm 2 ). The egg weights were calculated as 159.…”