Assessment of Internal and External Egg Qualities of Some Poultry Species

Abstract

Egg quality is composed of those characteristics of an egg that affect its acceptability by consumers Thirty (30) samples each from a total of fifty (50) freshly laid eggs of duck (DX), guinea fowl (GF), Local chicken (LCX), Broiler (BX) and turkey (TX) bought from reputable farms in Ibadan, were used for this study. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance to determine the effect of poultry species on egg quality. No significant effect (p>0.05) was observed in albumin height, shell index, albumin ratio, yolk ratio and Haugh unit while species had significant effect (P<0.05) on other egg quality characteristics considered. Highest estimates were observed in yolk height, yolk weight, albumin weight, yolk index and yolk diameter in DX (16.49 ± 0.42); DX (25.18 ± 0.51); (35.76 ± 1.41); GF (362.28± 13.70) and TX (5.56 ± 0.12), respectively. Highest estimates were observed in DX for egg length (62.59±0.75); in TX for egg weight (68.90±1.63) and shell weight (9.24±0.32). For egg width, shell ratio and shell thickness, highest values were observed in TX (45.96±1.29), GF (16.06±0.21) and GF (0.82±0.09) respectively, while corresponding lowest values were observed in GF (28.59±2.57), LCX (11.56±0.41) and LCX (0.33±0.03). Phenotypic correlations among the egg external characteristics across the species were predominantly not significant and ranged from low to high. The significant differences observed in most of the egg quality characteristics in this study could be attributed to the genetic make- up of individual species.