INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EGG QUALITY TRAITS OF ISA BROWN LAYER BIRDS RAISED IN SEMI-ARID REGION OF NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the internal and external egg quality traits in Isa Brown layer strain reared in semi-arid region of Nigeria. One hundred (100) eggs were randomly collected from Isa Brown layer birds. The birds were housed in battery cage system. The parameters measured on individual eggs included: egg weight (EWT), egg length (ELT), egg width (EWD), egg diameter (EDT), shell thickness (STK), shell weight (SWT), shell thickness (STK), shell weight (SWT), egg shell ratio (ESR), egg shape index (ESI), shell surface area (SSA), albumen weight (AWT), yolk weight (YWT), albumen ratio (ALR), yolk ratio (YKR) and yolk:albumen ratio (YAR). Data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis following the procedures of IBM SPSS statistical software (23.0.0). Results showed that the mean (±SE) of egg quality traits in Isa Brown layer birds were; EWT (58.36±0.50), ELT (54.34±0.23), EWD (40.47±0.14), STK (0.20±0.01), SWT (5.57±0.06), AWT (35.44±0.40), YWT (14.97±0.12), ESR (9.57±0.10), ALR (60.71±0.44), YKR (25.77±0.24), YAR (42.73±0.57), ESI (78.69±0.70) and SSA (59.62±0.38). The results of the correlations showed that EWT had positively high statistically significant relationship (P<0.05) with ELT (r = 0.715), EWD (r = 0.758), SWT (r = 0.469) and AWT (r = 0.785). The results of the correlation analysis revealed that improving ELT, EWD, SWT and AWT egg parameters might result in improvement in EWT, these traits could be selected during breeding to improve EWT of Isa Brown Layer Birds. The outcomes of the current study could be applied to predict EWT using egg quality traits.