Effect of egg storage period on blastoderm cell viability, embryonic development rate and incubation results

The article analyzes the relationship between the level of blastoderm cells death during storage and the hatchability of eggs. Changes in the incubation parameters of eggs, the intensity of embryo development, the duration of the hatching period, the energy of chick's hatching depending on the period of egg storage were observed. It is known that when an egg is laid, the chicken embryo is represented by a multilayered blastoderm. During egg storage, the total number of blastoderm cells decreases, which further affects the viability of the embryo, the hatchability and chick quality. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of the duration of egg storage period on blastoderm cells death and to establish the relationship between this indicator and the results of incubation. The work was carried out at State Poultry Research Station of NAAS on hatching eggs of red Rhode Island chickens. The study of the viability of blastoderm cells, the study of the intensity of embryo development, the duration of the hatching period, the energy of hatching were carried out in groups of eggs with storage period of 2 (control group), 10, 14, 17 and 21 days. It was found that with increasingof egg storage duration, there were significant decrease in the number of viable blastodermal cells (from 95.0±1.3% in the control group to 60.0±2.8% in the group of eggs after three weeks of storage), which negatively affected hatchability of eggs (r=0.99). The egg hatchability in the group after three weeks of storage was 57.0±3.1%, which is 28.1% less than in the control. Long duration of the egg storage period directly and indirectl(due to the inconsistency of the standard incubation regime with the needs of underdeveloped embryos) influenced the intensity of embryo development, duration of hatching period and hatching energy, which negatively affected the quality of chickens.