Interaction between housing system and genotype in relation to internal and external egg quality parameters

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The effect of three housing systems (conventional cages, enriched cages and litter) on egg quality parameters was evaluated in two experiments with four brown laying strains ISA Brown, Hisex Brown, Bovans Brown and Moravia BSL. During 40 weeks of lay the total number of 7200 eggs was produced and analysed for egg weight, egg component weight and eggshell quality indicators. In 60 eggs, pore density in the small-end, large-end and equatorial areas was determined. Significant interactions between genotype and housing were found out in egg weight (P ≤ 0.001), yolk and albumen weight (P ≤ 0.001) and yolk colour (P ≤ 0.001). Haugh units were the highest in eggs laid in cages and the lowest in the ISA Brown strain. Eggshell quality indicators were affected more by genotype than by housing. The interaction between genotype and housing was not significant for eggshell thickness but it was significant for eggshell weight and strength. Although eggshell thickness was lower in eggs produced in cages, eggshell strength was higher. A significant negative correlation was found out between pore density and housing system. Results of the study suggest that the ability of a strain to produce eggs of high quality in a particular housing system should be considered, even within brown strains.

The effect of housing system on egg quality of Lohmann white and Czech hen

“…Significantly higher shape index and deformation were determined in Czech hen compared to eggshell weight where higher values were found in Lohmann white. Similar results were confirmed also by Tůmová et al (2011). Main deviations in egg composition, egg weight and eggshell quality are between brown and white hybrids (Singh et al, 2009).…”

Impact of different housing systems and age of layers on egg quality characteristics

“…Samiullah et al (3) found that egg weight, Haugh unit, shell weight, shell ratio, and shell thickness values of eggs in a conventional-cage system were higher than those of eggs in a free-range system and, similar to our results, those values increased with flock age, except for Haugh unit, which decreased. However, in other studies there were no differences between housing systems for shell weight (14,16) and Haugh unit (17). In this study generally the temperature was low in the FR system depending on outdoor access and this might have contributed to albumen quality and Haugh unit value of eggs.…”

“…In this study generally the temperature was low in the FR system depending on outdoor access and this might have contributed to albumen quality and Haugh unit value of eggs. According to previous studies, the egg shape index (17) and yolk index (14) were higher in cage-system eggs than in the free-range or litter system eggs. However, Englmaierová et al (18) observed that the albumen and yolk index were higher in enriched cages and aviaries.…”

Effect of cage tier and age on performance, egg quality and stress parameters of laying hens

“…External egg quality, namely egg weight, poorer and variable eggshell quality, and shape index, and internal egg quality, namely proportion of yolk, albumen and lipid, depend on the age of laying hens (Rizzi & Chiericato, 2005;Johnston & Gous, 2007;Tůmová & Ledvinka, 2009;Charvátová & Tůmová, 2010). Egg weight, eggshell content, albumen height and albumen pH are affected by interactions between the age of laying hens, oviposition time and housing system ( Van den Brand et al, 2004;Tůmová et al, 2011).…”