Impact of Storage Period on Fertility and Mortality in Chabro Breeds of Poultry

Abstract

An investigation was conducted to study the effect of storage period on fertility and hatchability in large, medium and small sized eggs of Chabro breed. The study was conducted at poultry farm of SKN College of Agriculture, Jobner. For the present study, a total of 297 eggs were collected for this study. These eggs were grouped into three egg size categories i.e. Small (38-44 g), medium (45-52 g) and large (53-59 g). To study the impact of incubation period, eggs were stored at 21 ̊C temperature for three different time periods (fresh, 3 day and 6 day). It was observed that egg fertility was increased on 3rd day and decreased on 6th day as compared to 0 day. For small egg class, egg fertility was 95.55, 96.02 and 92.13% respectively, on 0, 3 and 6 day of storage. Similarly, for medium-sized egg class, fertility was 95.17, 95.64 and 90.28% and for large sized egg class, it was 91.11, 92.15 and 87.41% respectively, on 0, 3 and 6 day of storage. Embryonic mortality increased with increase in storage duration. For small egg class, egg mortality was 20.95, 17.56 and 24.87% respectively, on 0, 3 and 6 day of storage. Similarly, for medium-sized eggs class, mortality was 10.15, 8.45 and 12.63% and for large sized egg class, it was 29.30, 20.14 and 33.41% respectively, on 0, 3 and 6 day of storage. The egg fertility and mortality are affected by the storage period. For best hatchability, egg storage should not exceed 3 days.