Comparative study of egg quality traits between Potchefstroom Koekoek and Hy-line silver brown layers

Thobela Louis Tyasi, Legoabe Lebogang and Victoria Rankotsane Hlokoe

Abstract: Chicken egg is a biological structure intended by nature for reproduction and it also provides a complete diet for the developing embryo. In the current study, data on external and internal egg quality traits viz. egg weight (EW), egg length (EL), egg width (EWD), yolk weight (YW), shell weight (SW), shell surface index (SI), shell surface area (S.S.A), shell ratio (SR), albumen weight (AW), egg volume (EV), albumen ratio (AR), yolk ratio (YR), yolk/albumen (Y/A) and unit shell surface weight (USSW) were collected from Potchefstroom Koekoek and Hy-line silver brown layers to determine effect of chicken layer on egg quality traits. A total of 200 fresh eggs were randomly collected from the Potchefstroom Koekoek and Hy-line silver brown chickens at 22 weeks of age with 100 eggs per chicken layer to measure the physical egg quality traits. Pearson correlation and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. Correlation results of Potchefstroom Koekoek revealed that EW had a positively high statistical significant correlation (P < 0.01) with EL (r = 0.54), EWD (r = 0.85), YW (r = 0.67), SW (r = 0.59), S.S.A (r = 1.00), AW (r = 0.82) and EV (r = 0.89). While in Hy-line Silver Brown, EW had a positively high statistical significant correlation (P<0.01) with EL (r = 0.63), EWD (r = 0.77), YW (r = 0.71), SW (r = 0.71), S.S.A (r = 1.00) and AW (r = 0.93), respectively. ANOVA findings recognised that almost all the egg quality traits affected by the chicken layer favoured the Hy-line Silver Brown chicken breed when compared to Potchefstroom Koekoek chicken layer. Therefore, more studies required to improve egg quality traits of Potchefstroom Koekoek chicken layer. The study will help chicken egg farmers to improve egg quality traits to increase egg production.

Keywords: egg length; egg weight; egg width; egg yolk weight; shell weight

Date published: 2022-02-16