Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXIII, Issue 2
Written by Joseph Joseph OKOH, Samuel MBAP, Yusuf MANCHA, Tahir IBRAHIM
Adult female indigenous chickens were assessed for egg characteristics in the North central agro ecological zone of Nigeria. Data were generated as Out/on station on all female chickens. Chickens were maintained as a single unimproved population and allowed to mate, lay and hatch naturally. External and internal qualities were assessed on the first generation eggs. Egg weight showed mean value of 39.59 ±0.06 g which did not vary significantly. There was however significant variation by state. Overall mean egg length was 3.80±0.01 cm, while on-station had 3.81± 0.01 cm. Mean egg width was 3.89 ± 0.01cm and on-station 3.88± 0.01 cm, but values varied significantly (P<0.01) by states. Mean shell thickness was 0.90±0.32mm while on-station value was 0.52±0.05 mm. There was significant difference in shell thickness (P<0.001) by states. Thickness varied from 0.35±0.03 to 0.790±0.08 mm in Nasarawa and Niger states. Shell weight was observed to be 4.18± 0.01 and showed non-significant difference by site and state. Internal quality showed that mean albumen width 18.78 ± 0.02 cm. Albumen height was observed to be 4.57± 0.03 cm and showed no significant difference by site but differed significantly (P<0.001) by state. The overall quality rating of the egg (Haugh unit) was 76.31± 0.16. Highest egg quality (Hu=78.61±0.22) was observed in Nasarawa and least (Hu = 73.44±0.16) in Niger state. Most correlation values were significant at 1%. Only egg weight is correlated with shell weight at 5 % (0.036; P<0.05). Most egg characteristic measured was lowly correlated. There was similarity of egg in the study area since most traits were non-significant. The high egg qualities are an indication of good reproductive performance in the chickens and the positive correlations showed that the traits could be used to predict each other and thus aid selection and hasten selection processes to develop the indigenous layer chickens.
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