EFFECT OF LAYING AGE AND PLUMAGE COLOUR ON INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF NOILER CHICKEN EGGS
Keywords:
Noiler chicken, plumage colour, laying age, external egg quality, internal egg qualityAbstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of laying age and plumage colour on the internal and external quality characteristics of eggs laid by Noiler chicken. Three hundred freshly laid eggs of three plumage colours (brown, barred and black) and age (young and old) were used for this experiment. External and internal quality parameters measured were: egg weight, egg length, egg width, shape index, albumen height, yolk height, yolk width, yolk index, yolk and albumen weight, Haugh unit, shell thickness, shell thickness and shell surface area. The data were subjected to General Linear Model procedure of SAS® (2002) with laying age, plumage colour and their two-way interaction as fixed effects. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed in albumen height, yolk height and Haugh unit as a result of differences in plumage colour. In addition, the study showed that age had a significant effect on all the parameters considered except egg shape index. The result showed that albumen height, yolk height and Haugh unit decreased with an increase in laying age. In conclusion, it was found that laying age and plumage colour had significant effect on the quality of eggs laid by Noiler chickens.
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