EGG QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF NOILER STRAIN COMPARED TO TWO OTHER COMMERCIAL STRAINS OF LAYERS

Abstract

The experiment was conducted using three strains of layers; Isa brown, nera black and noiler (60 each) to compare their egg quality traits of the three strains. The birds were fed with commercial feed and the study lasted 6 weeks. Each strain was randomly allocated into four replicates consisting of 15 birds per replicate in Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Two eggs were collected daily from each replicate per week to determine egg quality. The internal egg quality parameter were accessed after breaking and separating each of the components, the parameter considered for internal egg quality were yolk colour, yolk length and weight. Egg weight, length and width, shell weight and thickness were considered for external egg quality. A non significant influence of strain was detected in all parameters recorded except egg production, egg weight, yolk weight and yolk colour that were significant (p<0.05) among the strains. Isa brown had the significantly higher (p<0.05) egg production (80.57%) while noiler strain had the lowest value of 57.47%.Noiler recorded the highest values for egg weight (63.80g) and yolk weight (32.17g) while Isa brown had the lowest (58.00g and 28.11g, respectively)Values recorded for egg length, egg breadth, shell weight, yolk length and shell thickness were not significantly affected by the strain of layers and the ranges were 5.17 - 5.35mm, 3.80 - 4.10mm. 7.36 - 7.54g, 1.89 – 2.09mm and 0.34 – 0.36, respectively. Conclusively, egg production of noiler was poor, but other egg qualities were better.