The Effect of Broiler Breeder Ages on the Qualitive and Quantitive Properties of the Egg

Abstract

Broiler breeder age is one of the most important factors that affects on egg properties. However by increasing the age of broiler breeder flock, the quality of eggs and consequently the quality of their chick products would be changed. In order to study the effect of broiler breeder flock age on the various aspects of chick products, 300 fertilizable eggs were selected randomly, from 3 broiler breeder farms. Selected eggs were collected from broilers that were 30 (young), 36 (peak), 43(after peak), 53 (old), 60 (very old) and 82 (molted) weeks old. Collected eggs were stored during 3 to 4 days in the ambient temperature. Qualitive and quantitive aspects of eggs including egg weight, albumen height yolk, height thickness of egg shell, yolk color, Albumen and yolk PH and Hugh unit were studied. Trait Analysis was done by ANOVA procedure of SAS statistical software. To compare the means, Duncan test was used. The effects of age and breeder farms on the egg weight, yolk color, yolk and albumen PH, yolk and albumen height, shell egg thickness and Hugh unit were significant (p<0.05). The lowest difference was seen between the age of 53, 60 and 82 week old (p<0.05). Albumen PH and alkaline is increased by increase of age, but yolk PH is the variance. Influence of age on the traits including yolk and albumen height and Hugh unit was decreased and the color of yolk was faded by increasing age. According to obtained results from these research performances of ages of 53, 60 and 82 weeks are close together. We could conclude that older broiler breeder flocks are produce the better qualitive and quantitive properties of egg products. Since most poultry enough information about the quality of breeder chickens and the best age to have chickens, using the results of this study can be answered many questions.