Effect of bird age and storage system on physical properties of eggs from brown laying hens

Abstract

A total of 108 eggs from a group of 100 brown laying hens housed in standard cages were analyzed. Thirty-six eggs were retired when the hens had 30 week of age, other 36 eggs were retired when the hens had 35 week of age and the remaining 36 eggs were retired five weeks afterwards. Each group of 36 eggs was radomly divided in three groups of 12 eggs. First group was analyzed at once, second group one was kept during one week in the refrigerator (5ºC) and third group was kept also one week but on ambient temperature (25ºC). Shell color, shell thickness, specific gravity, albumen height and Haugh units wre obtained. The bird age had significant effect on shell color and shell thickness, but the storage system had not influence on such variables.The hen age had not effect on specific gravity, but the storage system affected to this variable. Hen age and storage system had significant influence (P <0.05) on albumen height and Haugh units, and the interaction age x storage system was significant for these variables. The specific gravity had positive relations with shell thickness, yolk color, albumen height and Haugh units. It is concluded that bird age and storage system under high temperatures reduced the egg quality.