Vol. 9, Issue 5, Part L (2024)

Author(s): N Kowsalya, Dr. M Anandhi, Dr. D Jayanthi and Dr. P Shamsudeen

Abstract: An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect short periods of incubation during egg storage (SPIDES) with or without turning on hatchery performances of long term stored eggs. A total of 750 broiler hatching eggs from 33.5 weeks old parent stock were divided into five groups: T₁ (Control without SPIDES), T₂ (3 SPIDES without turning), T₃ (3 SPIDES and 3 turning during each SPIDES), T₄ (4 SPIDES without turning), and T₅ (4 SPIDES and 3 turning during each SPIDES). Eggs were stored at 17 °C with 75% relative humidity and SPIDES treated eggs were periodically exposed to 37.7 °C for 3 hours at 5 days interval. The SPIDES with turning treatment group eggs were turned by 45º angle on either side of an hourly interval. All eggs were stored for 21 days and incubated at 22^nd day. The results showed significant differences between treatment groups in storage loss, moisture loss, hatchability of total egg set and fertile egg set, hatch time, hatch window, early, mid, late and total embryonic mortality as well as dead-in-shell. SPIDES effectively mitigated the negative impacts of prolonged storage, suggesting its potential for improving hatchability of commercial broiler hatching eggs stored for long period. In conclusion, SPIDES treatment, particularly with 3 SPIDES and 3 turning during each SPIDES at every 5 days interval significantly (p<0.01) enhanced hatchability and reduced embryonic mortality in long term stored eggs.