Storage Period Affects Weight Loss of Japanese Quail Eggs

Abstract

Long storage periods may increase embryo mortality. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of storage period on the weight loss, eggshell surface temperature, hatchability, and embryonic mortality of Japanese quail eggs. Two hundred fertile eggs were collected from a flock of 30-week-old Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica). The eggs were collected for 10 consecutive days after lay, and immediately incubated. A completely randomized experimental design with 10 treatments, corresponding to the number of days eggs were stored between egg collection and setting, with 20 replicates each, was applied. Egg weight loss increased with storage period duration, starting on day 6 (2.1%, on average) and reached 3.26%, on average, in eggs stored for 10 days. The highest hatchability (p>0.05) was obtained in eggs stored for two days, which also lost the least weight (1.20%). Storage period did not influence eggshell surface temperature (p>0.05) during incubation, but higher temperatures (p<0.05) were measured on days 10 and 15 of incubation compared with day 5. Eggs stored for ten days presented the highest weight loss, and therefore, a storage period of up to five days is recommended to maintain the quality of incubated Japanese quail eggs. Furthermore, egg surface temperature increases during the second half of the incubation period as a result of increasing embryonic metabolic rate.

Influence of Storage Period on Egg Quality Characteristics, Hatching Results, Productive Performance and Behaviour of Hatched Japanese Quail Chicks

“…For the entire period from egg setting till 15 day of incubation, eggs lost significantly more weight when the storage duration was longer as eggs stored for 14 days lost 9.42% of weight while, eggs stored for 7 or 2 days lost 8.85% and 8.28%, respectively. This result is similar to previous observations by Roriz, et al, (2016). High egg weight losses could be a reason for incidence of high early embryonic mortalities because of dehydration, while, insufficient weight losses causes presence of excessive water in the egg that so embryos are not able to inflate their lungs immediately before hatch and that leads to late embryonic mortalities (Sarcinelli, 2012).…”

Performances de croissance, de ponte et qualité de l’œuf chez la caille Japonaise (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

“…Le poids moyen de l'oeuf à incuber obtenu dans notre essai a été de 11,3g, il est donc tout à fait conformes aux valeurs recommandées (ITELV). Ce poids est cependant inférieur à ceux obtenues par Sangili- Roriz et al (2016), une durée de conservation de 5 jours au maximum est fortement recommandée pour maintenir une bonne qualité de l'oeuf à incuber.…”

Pre-Incubation and Turning During Long Storage as a Method of Improving Hatchability and Chick Quality of Japanese Quail Eggs

“…The positive effect of PI and T of hatching eggs during storage was proven based on the example of chicken (Fasenko et al, 2001b;Reijrink et al, 2009) and turkey eggs (Bakst and Gupta, 1997;Fasenko et al, 2001a). The scarce studies on quail eggs, in which PI (Usman et al, 2008;Yildirim et al, 2015) and T (Roriz et al, 2016) were applied during storage have not provided comprehensive results.…”