Effect of amino acid injection in broiler breeder eggs on embryonic growth and hatchability of chicks

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of amino acid (AA) injections in ovo in Cobb broiler breeder eggs on hatchability and subsequent chick BW. In Experiment 1, moisture, crude fat (CF), and CP were analyzed over time during incubation (Day 0, 7, 14, and 19 of incubation). Moisture, CP, and CF of the embryo increased, and moisture, CP, and CF of eggs decreased, as incubation time increased (P < 0.05). Combined egg and embryo AA contents, except Gly and Pro, decreased (P < 0.05) as incubation time increased. However, the pattern of AA in the egg did not change as the embryo developed. In Experiment 2, AA were injected into the yolk or air cell at Day 0 and 7 of incubation. Hatchability was reduced (P < 0.05) when AA were injected at Day 0 of incubation. However, when the AA solution was injected into the yolk sac at Day 7 of incubation, hatchability was not affected, and BW of chicks increased relative to egg weight prior to incubation. These results suggest that in ovo administration of AA may be an effective method of increasing chick BW at hatch.

Growth, Digestive Tract and Muscle Weights in Slow-Growing Broiler is not Affected by a Blend of Branched-Chain Amino Acids Injected into Different Sites of Egg

“…In our study BCAA injected into the amnion, yolk sac or albumin at 18 d of incubation did not, however, reduce hatchability or studied performance characteristics of birds. The disappearance between our study and previous studies (Al-Murrani, 1982;Ohta et al, 1999Ohta et al, , 2001) may be resulted in injection time (7 th vs. 18 th day of incubation), as reported by Bhanja and Mandal (2005). The albumen is transferred into the amniotic cavity and yolk sac (Ohta et al, 1999) after the second week of incubation.…”

“…Hatchability and body weight at hatch may affect in ovo amino acid injection depending on injection site. Previous studies demonstrated that in ovo amino acid injection at 7 d into the yolk (Al-Murrani, 1982), air cell (Ohta et al, 1999), chorioallantoic membrane or into the amniotic cavity (Ohta and Kidd, 2001) decreased hatchability. In our study BCAA injected into the amnion, yolk sac or albumin at 18 d of incubation did not, however, reduce hatchability or studied performance characteristics of birds.…”

“…Therefore, BCAA, especially leucine are thought to have effects on muscle protein synthesis apart from being a source of energy and may reduce the amount of proteolysis in the muscle and muscle damage that may occur under stress. Researchers have shown that in ovo injection site may affect hatchability and body weight at hatch (Al-Murrani, 1982;Ohta et al, 1999). Therefore some studies were conducted to prefer the targeted injection site in embryonated eggs for to understand various physiological features associated with late embryonic development (Ohta and Kidd, 2001;Kop-Bozbay et al, 2013).…”

Effect of in-ovo administration with two levels of amino acids mixture on the performance of Muscovy ducks

“…Research has been shown that embryos survived after in-ovo injection of amino acids into the yolk (Al-Murrani, 1982) with little impacts on hatchability percentage (Hajihosaini and Mottaghitalab, 2004;Ohta et al, 1999 and. Inovo injection of 0.50 ml (84%) but not 0.75 ml of AA mixture (68%) into the yolk of fertilized Muscovy duck's eggs at the 12 th day of incubation increased hatchability percentage compared to the un-injected control (74%) and D.W injected groups (72%).…”

“…Hatched chicks are affected by the nutrients in the yolk remaining in the peritoneal cavity post-hatching (Romanoff, 1960). Nowadays, in ovo-injection is widely used for many purposes, such as fertilizing an avian egg in the shell (Cantrell and Wooten, 2003), injecting avian eggs with immunological material (Jochemsen and Jeurissen, 2002), a trial for sex reversal in birds (Kagmi and Hanada, 1997), increasing the post-hatching body weights of birds by in-ovo injection of growth promoters (Ohta et al, 1999), and enhancing the growth of avian embryo by injecting eggs with special liquid nutritional supplements. Nutrients in-ovo injection has a lot of benefits: greater efficiency of feed utilization (Bhanja et al, 2004); reduced post-hatch mortality and morbidity; improved immune response (Gore and Qureshi, 1997); enhanced early growth by improving intestinal function and development (Tako et al, 2004); and increased skeletal growth (Hargis et al, 1989), breast muscle yield (Hajihosaini and Mottaghitalab, 2004), and marketing body weight (Selim et al, 2012).…”