IMPACT OF EGG WEIGHT, EGG SHAPE AND EGG STORAGE PERIOD ON EGG QUALITY TRAITS OF WHITE LEGHORN CHICKENS: A SHORT COMMUNICATION

The White Leghorn chicken is an egg laying chicken breed with high egg quality performance.But the effect of egg weight, egg shape and egg storage period on egg quality traits of this breed remains poorly understood.The study was conducted to determine the impact of egg weight, egg shape and egg storage period on egg quality traits.A total of three hundred (300) eggs of White Leghorn layers aged 40 weeks were randomly collected at the poultry laying house of the University of Limpopo experimental farm.The egg weight was classified as small (<60 g), medium (60 to 69 g) and large (>69 g), egg shape was classified into shape index (SI) as sharp egg (SI < 72), normal (standard) egg (SI = 72-76) and round egg (SI > 76), and egg storage period was divided into five groups (0, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days) with 20 eggs per group.Egg weight (EW), shell weight (SW), albumen weight (AW), yolk weight (YW) and egg length (EL) were measured as egg quality traits.The results showed that egg weight and egg shape had an effect (p < 0.05) on EL, SW and AW but had no influence (p > 0.05) on YW, while the egg storage had no effect (p > 0.05) on either of the measured traits except EL (p < 0.05).This study suggests that egg weight, egg shape and egg storage period had an influence on EL with higher in large eggs, sharp eggs and eggs stored 7 days or longer.