Effect of Egg Storage Temperature and Storage Period Pre-incubation on Hatchability of Eggs in Three Varieties of Japanese Quail

Abstract

Background: There are many factors affecting successes of quail production system , one of important factor is provide sufficient number of egg for needs of hatcheries to produce chicks . This study was conducted in poultry farm of Animal Resources – College of Agriculture – University of Diyala - Iraq, to determine suitable conditions for storage of Japanese quail eggs belong to three varieties of Japanese quails( White , Black and brown plumage color ). Materials and Methods: Eggs from three varieties allocated in two groups represented two storage temperatures 7 C° and 20 C° (average room temperature ) , and each temperature group divided into four sub-groups represented storage periods length 3 , 7 , 10 and 14 days , thus the total number of egg groups were 16 groups. The experiment performed in factorial experiment 3 × 2 × 4 for three factors included variety, storage temperature and storage period , conducted in Randomized Completely Blocks Design with three replicates. The experimental flock consist of 450 birds belong to three varieties , the eggs collected daily and stored according to these various treatments before entered the incubator , and after hatching of eggs , the data recorded for hatchability and embryonic mortality percentages for treatments. Results: The results showed that the black variety quail has significant superiority in fertility ( 80.19 %) with compare to White and Brown varieties ( 69.07 and 68.03 % respectively ) . There were significant effect ( P< 0.05 ) of storage period on hatchability , hence there were significantly decline in hatchability after storage period for 14 days ( 36.58 %) , also there were significant interaction between varieties and storage periods . While there were no significant effect of storage temperature and other interactions on hatchability and embryonic mortality percentage.