Influence of Storage Period, Chitosan Coating and Diluted Acetic Acid Spraying on Hatching and Hatched Chicks Characteristics

Abstract

The present research evaluated the effect of coating hatching eggs with chitosan and sprinkling them with diluted acetic acid on the characteristics of hatching and hatched chicks using 480 eggs from 35-week-old broiler ROSS 308 breeder. The experiment included two variables; firstly, two storage periods (4 days and 14 days), secondly, coating the eggs with chitosan and spraying them with diluted acetic acid on the 18th day of incubation. Each treatment contained sixty eggs, with four replicates of fifteen eggs. The results showed that the factor of storage period and treatment of overall hatching rate increased in T3 significantly better than others. It was observed that the percentage of kidneys and fertilized eggs that hatched decreased as the storage period increased. In addition, plating with chitosan improved the hatching rate, as there was no significant difference between 4 and 14 days of storage with the control treatment, indicating that chitosan improved the hatching rate of fertilised eggs after 14 days of storage. The Spraying of diluted acetic acid to chitosan reduced the percentage of early embryonic fatalities. Concerning priming chicks, chitosan had a negative effect, as the proportion of priming chicks increased substantially in the T3 treatment compared to T1. Moisture loss was increased with the storage period progressed; however, there was no significant difference in the moisture content between T1 and chitosan encapsulation of treatments. Therefore, we conclude from the study that encapsulation with chitosan increased the hatching rate and decreased embryonic mortality in 14-day-old hatching embryos.