Effect of age on egg quality traits of Dahlem Red chicken under intensive system of management in Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

The present study was carried on Dahlem Red chicken breed to assess the effect of age on egg quality traits. Total 250 eggs were collected from birds at different age groups, i.e. 21, 28, 40, 52 and 64 weeks of age for studying the external and internal egg quality parameters. The external characters like egg weight, egg length and egg width were measured. Thereafter, the egg was broken and the internal traits like albumen length, height, width of albumen, yolk height, yolk width, shell thickness were recorded using standard procedure. The derived traits like shape index, albumen index, yolk index and Haugh unit, were estimated. Most of the egg quality traits differed significantly at different age of measurements. Egg weight increased as the age of bird advanced and egg weight varied from 39.35±0.69 at 21 week of age to 59.3±1.22 at 64 week of age. Analysis of variance revealed that shape index did not differ significantly with age. Length, width and height of albumen increased as the age of bird progressed. Albumin index was significantly higher at 21 and 40 weeks of age. Similarly, yolk height and width increased as the age of bird advanced. The differences for Haugh unit scores were non-significant among the different age groups and varied within a very narrow range (96.94–98.94) at different ages indicating uniform internal egg quality over the age. Significant differences in shell thickness were observed among different age groups. Correlation coefficient between egg weight with egg length, egg width, albumen length, albumen height and yolk width were positive. Albumen index and Haugh unit were negatively correlated with egg weight at 21, 52 and 64 week of age. The result indicate that the age of bird significantly affects the egg quality parameters.