Abstract
The quail raising in Brazil has increased through the last years and the incubation procedures are important to maintenance and improvement of quail egg production. To obtain a sufficient number of eggs to fill an incubator, eggs are usually accumulated in storage over a period from 1 day up to 3 weeks before incubation. The objective of this research was to verify the effect of egg storage on hatchability and egg weight loss for two lineages of Japanese quails. Sixty four Japanese quails were divided in two groups: G1 (n=32) for meat production and G2 (n=32) for egg production. They were used for serial egg collections that were performed every day, during 15 consecutively days, totaling 600 eggs. After collection they were placed in refrigerated room (20°C and 60% of relative humidity) and submitted to different periods of storage, from 0 day until 14 days, according to their collection day. The incubation occurred at 37.6°C and 60% RH. The weight measurements were done during storage, incubation and hatching. The results showed that for Meat type and Egg type quails, the egg hatchability was around 84% until 10 days of storage, and then this rate decreased significantly. Both types of quail eggs presented similar weight loss during storage and incubation. The research showed that quail eggs present great hatchability until 10 days of storage and that eggs submitted to storage present a reduced weight loss during incubation.
Highlights
Quail production in Brazil has increased during the last few years
The quail raising in Brazil has increased through the last years and the incubation procedures are important to maintenance and improvement of quail egg production
The objective of this research was to verify the effect of egg storage on hatchability and egg weight loss for two lineages of Japanese quails
Summary
Quail production in Brazil has increased during the last few years. In 2002, 9.25 millions dozen quail eggs were produced by 5,572,068 birds, which yielded a revenue of R$ 48 millions (IBGE, 2002). The incubation procedures are important for maintenance and improvement of quail egg production. In order to obtain a sufficient number of eggs to fill an incubator, eggs are usually accumulated under storage for 1 day to 3 weeks before incubation (Kuurman et al, 2002). In order to prevent embryonic development during the storage period, eggs must be stored at low temperature. Storage causes egg water loss by evaporation, which rate is influenced by temperature and relative humidity. Water loss is a normal process during incubation; 12 to 14% of water are usually lost by broiler and turkey eggs (Rahn et al, 1981). If water loss is too low or too high, embryo development is affected (Rahn & Ar, 1974), and, egg
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