Effect of induced molting on albumen quality, hatchability, and chick body weight from broiler breeders.
Commercial Cobb broiler breeders were subjected to molting from 55 to 62 wk of age. Incubating eggs were collected before molting and after molting and were stored for 18, 13, 8, or 3 d. Sample eggs were broken to measure albumen Haugh units (HU) and pH. Two hundred twenty-five eggs per treatment, stored for 18, 13, 8, or 3 d, were incubated for 21 d; the hatched chicks were weighed at the end of incubation and again after Day 7 of rearing. As the storage time increased, albumen HU decreased (P < 0.001). At all storage times, HU after molting were higher than those before molting (P < 0.001). Albumen pH increased with storage time (P < 0.001). A molting x storage interaction on pH was observed after 8 d of storage (P = 0.03). Hatchability of eggs increased after hens were molted, if the eggs were stored for a long time (P < 0.001). Body weights of 1-d-old chicks from the eggs of hens before molt were heavier than those from eggs after molting (P < 0.001). Conversely, at 7 d, the chicks from the eggs after molting were significantly heavier than those from eggs before molting (P < 0.001). We concluded that molting was a procedure to improve hatchability and chick juvenile growth. If eggs need to be stored, we recommended that fresh eggs with high HU value be stored rather than those with low HU values.
Tona
K
K
Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. tona.kokou@agr.kuleuven.ac.be
Bamelis
F
F
De
Ketelaere B
KB
Bruggeman
V
V
Decuypere
E
E
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D002645:Chickens / Q000502:physiology*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D018978:Molting / Q000502:physiology*; D010047:Ovalbumin / Q000032:analysis*; D010063:Ovum / Q000502:physiology*
D010047:Ovalbumin