A study on physical egg quality characteristics of exotic and indigenous poultry breeds in Juba town-South Sudan

Abstract

This study was conducted in the University of Juba Animal Production Farm to compare the egg quality characteristics of the exotic Rhode Island Red with the indigenous Baledy poultry breeds in South Sudan. Twenty five eggs from each breed were collected and some physical egg quality traits including egg weight, egg length, egg width, egg shape index, egg specific gravity, egg yolk length, egg yolk width, egg yolk index, albumin height and shell thickness were measured. The data were managed and analysed using ANOVA. The result showed a highly significant difference (p<0.0001) for the egg weight mean value of (56.04 + 0.78) and (23.50 + 1.99) for the exotic and indigenous poultry breeds, respectively. Egg length, egg width, egg shape index, egg specific gravity, egg yolk index, albumen height and egg shell thickness were highly significant (p<0.0001) showing mean values of 5.72 + 0.04), (4.98 + 0.07); (4.09 + 0.02),(3.54 + 0.04); (96.37 + 0.26), (98.20 + 0.26); (1.04 + 0.01), (0.96 + 0.01); (1.04 + 0.01), (1.06 + 0.01); (3.97 + 0.02), (3.31 + 0.04) and (0.31 + 0.00),(0.28 + 0.00) for exotic and indigenous poultry breeds, respectively.While the respective egg yolk length (3.31 + 0.06), (3.09 + 0.05) and yolk width (2.97 + 0.03),(2.70 + 0.04) were significant (p<0.001) and with the least significant differences (p <0.05). Further study on other indigenous poutlry breeds is needed for improving egg hatchability in South Sudan.