EFFECT OF EGG STORAGE CONDITIONS ON THE HATCHABILITY AND CHICK QUALITY OF DUCKS
This study was conducted at the French Group Company at Al-Sadat City in Menoufia Governorate to investigate the effect of different pre-incubation egg storage period on the egg weight loss, hatchability, hatch window, duckling quality, duckling immunity, and its body weight. 384 fertile eggs were collected from 200 females of Pekin ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) at the age of (26 weeks of production), which mated by artificial insemention with 30 male of Muscovy ducks (Cairina moschata) to produce Molar ducks. Eggs were divided into four equal treatments (each of 96 eggs) and subjected to different storage periods (0, 4, 8 and 12 days) to determine the effects of different storage periods on egg weight loss, hatchability, hatch window, duckling quality, duckling immunity, and its body weight were measured for the different treatments. The results revealed that there were insignificantly differences (p ≤ 0.05) in egg weight loss by the different pre-incubation egg storage period. Storage eggs for 0 days had the highest hatchability percentage (92.2 %) compared to other experimental groups. Data demonstrated that storage eggs for 12 days achieved the largest hatch window (17:30 hours) when compared with 0, 4 and 8 days of storage. The relationship between storage period and duckling quality revealed that storage eggs for 0 days achieved the highest quality compared to the other groups. Immunity also, was affected by storage period (0 days was the hightest immunity) compared with the other groups. The effect of storage period on duckling body weight at age of one day was also studied. Data indicated that thrid group (storage periods 8 days) achieved significantly (P ≤ 0.01) highest body weight (76 g).
It could be concluded that storage of fertile duck eggs should not exceed 8 days to avoid excessive loss of egg water that impair the albumen contents which needed by the developing embryo for growth during incubation. The storage also, affected the transfer of maternal immunity to the embroyes and the hatched duklings.