Effect of egg storage length on hatchability and weight loss in incubation of egg and meat type Japanese quails

ABSTRACT

The quail raising in Brazil has increased through the last years and the incubation procedures are important to maintenance and improvement of quail egg production. To obtain a sufficient number of eggs to fill an incubator, eggs are usually accumulated in storage over a period from 1 day up to 3 weeks before incubation. The objective of this research was to verify the effect of egg storage on hatchability and egg weight loss for two lineages of Japanese quails. Sixty four Japanese quails were divided in two groups G1 (n=32) for meat production and G2 (n=32) for egg production. They were used for serial egg collections that were performed every day, during 15 consecutively days, totaling 600 eggs. After collection they were placed in refrigerated room (20°C and 60% of relative humidity) and submitted to different periods of storage, from 0 day until 14 days, according to their collection day. The incubation occurred at 37.6°C and 60% RH. The weight measurements were done during storage, incubation and hatching. The results showed that for Meat type and Egg type quails, the egg hatchability was around 84% until 10 days of storage, and then this rate decreased significantly. Both types of quail eggs presented similar weight loss during storage and incubation. The research showed that quail eggs present great hatchability until 10 days of storage and that eggs submitted to storage present a reduced weight loss during incubation.