The effect of in ovo administration of different levels of betaine and choline on egg hatchability, immune response, growth and carcass traits of broiler chickens was studied. Four thousand hatching eggs from Ross 308 broiler breeder layers, weighed individually, were incubated for 21 days in a commercial hatchery. At 12 th day of incubation, 3456 fertilized eggs were randomly divided into 8 experimental groups of 3 replicates each (144 eggs per replicate): negative control (NC) -not injected; positive control (PC) -injected with 0.5 mL deionized water; Bet 0.25 -injected with 0.5 mL deionized water+0.25 mg soluble betaine; Bet 0.375 -injected with 0.5 mL deionized water+0.375 mg soluble betaine; Bet 0.50 -injected with 0.5 mL deionized water+0.50 mg soluble betaine; Chol 0.25 -injected with 0.5 mL deionized water+0.25 mg soluble choline; Chol 0.375 -injected with 0.5 mL deionized water+0.375 mg soluble choline; Chol 0.50 -injected with 0.5 mL deionized water+0.50 mg soluble choline. Among the hatched chickens, 360 males were randomly chosen (45 for each group) and were grown up to 42 nd day of age. The embryo mortality, pecked eggs, infected eggs and hatchability percentages were similar among the experimental groups. The betaine and choline treatments improved hatching weight and final weight of chickens, while reduced feed conversion ratio and abdominal fat percentage. No effect on carcass yield, and breast muscle, leg and wings percentages, as well as on immunoglobulin M (IgM), G (IgG), and total antibody (IgT) titers was observed. The treatments had little effect on internal organs.

Background: Shell fragility of hatching eggs can have negative implications on the economic performance of hatcheries. Objective: To determine the efficacy of sealing eggshell micro cracks with either coloured or uncoloured nail varnish, and molten paraffin on hatchability, embryonic mortality (EM) and hatched chick weight (CW). Methods: Eggs (n= 576) with micro-cracks were assigned among four groups (n=144 each group) for a 21 d incubation period. One group was untreated (CE). In the other groups, the micro cracked area of eggshells was sealed with uncolored nail varnish (NV), colored nail varnish (CV), or molten paraffin wax (MP). A positive control group of un-cracked eggs (UE) was also included (n= 144). Results: The eggshell sealant treatments allowed normal conductance related to egg weight loss after 18 d of incubation (11.45%), and chick weights were normal among treatment groups (44.7 g). Hatchability and embryonic mortality in the early and late incubation periods of the NV group was similar to UE (84.02 vs 86.11% for hatchability, 6.95 vs 10.42% for EM on days 1-10, and 2.08 vs 1.39% for EM on days 18-21 respectively; p>0.05). The CV group had lower hatchability than the NV (77.77 vs 84.02% respectively; p<0.05), whereas MP showed similar hatchability compared to the CE group (59.72 vs 72.92%, respectively p>0.05). Conclusions: Application of uncoloured nail varnish on shell micro-cracks improves egg hatchability.