Abstract
This study investigates, in red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa), the effects of the time to change from incubation to hatching temperature on egg weight loss, hatchability, chick weight at hatch, incubation length, and development stage at embryonic mortality. Five batches of 80 eggs each were incubated at 37.8ºC during the first 18, 19, 20, 21 or 22 d of incubation, and subsequently at 37.5ºC until hatching. Hatchability, development stage at embryonic mortality and chick weight at hatch were not affected by the time of temperature change (p > 0.05). However, incubation length and egg weight loss after 21 d of incubation as representative of that of developed embryos were influenced by the incubation treatment (p<0.001 and p<0.05, respectively). Thus, eggs maintained at the incubation temperature of 37.8ºC for 22 d not only hatched earlier (23.04 d) but also with lower dispersion than eggs from the other treatments. As hatching may start around day 22 of incubation, to improve hatching synchrony we could recommend to move A. rufa eggs from the incubator, set at 37.8ºC, to the hatcher on the 21st d of incubation keeping the temperature unchanged, and reduce it to 37.5ºC on the 22nd d. Nevertheless, further research should be carried out to study the effect of this temperature scheduling on chick growth and performance.
Highlights
This study investigates, in red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa), the effects of the time to change from incubation to hatching temperature on egg weight loss, hatchability, chick weight at hatch, incubation length, and development stage at embryonic mortality
Wild populations of A. rufa have decreased due to several factors like predation, problems related to the release of farmreared partridges, deterioration of their natural habitat due to changes in land use, and increase of hunting pressure (Buenestado et al, 2009; Casas et al, 2012; Delibes-Mateos et al, 2012)
It is known that releases of red-legged partridges raised under farming conditions do not contribute to an effective conservation of their wild populations and it may even be a threat to it (Negro et al, 2001; Pérez et al, 2004; Barbanera et al, 2010), A. rufa is raised in these countries for hunting purpose in order to ensure hunting bags and provide birds for re-establishment purposes (Sokos et al, 2008; DíazFernández et al, 2012)
Summary
This study investigates, in red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa), the effects of the time to change from incubation to hatching temperature on egg weight loss, hatchability, chick weight at hatch, incubation length, and development stage at embryonic mortality. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of the time when the temperature is lowered from the incubation to the hatcher temperature, on hatchability, weight loss, incubation length and embryonic mortality of red-legged partridge eggs.
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