• Animal cells and systems
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.77-80
• /
• 2004

To investigate the effect of host egg color dimorphism on the vinous-throated parrotbill (Paradoxornis webbianus) - common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) interactions, we monitored breeding nests of vinous-throated parrotbills, and conducted model egg experiments, using two colors: white and blue. Of the 190 nests examined in this study, cuckoo parasitism occurred at 10 nests (8 blue and 2 white egg clutches, respectively), and only blue cuckoo eggs were found. This frequency was similar to the egg-color ratio of all host nests found (151 blue and 39 white egg clutches). Vinous-throated parrotbills showed high rejection rate towards both cuckoo eggs and model ones. There was a significant difference in rejection rates towards mimetic (blue) and non-mimetic (white) eggs in blue egg clutches. Mimetic eggs put in nests took significantly longer to be rejected than non-mimetic ones. The most common rejection method used by the hosts was egg ejection (puncture-ejection). The costs of ejecting non-mimetic eggs tended to be lower than those of ejecting mimetic eggs. These results indicate that egg-color dimorphism in this species favors the individuals having white egg clutches in terms of higher rejection rate and lower ejection costs of the parasitic eggs. This study also suggests that egg-color dimorphism of the vinous-throated parrotbill decreases the effect of cuckoo parasitism on host populations.

• Animal Bioscience
• /
• v.34 no.11
• /
• pp.1870-1878
• /
• 2021

Objective: The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of different colors produced by light emitting diode (LED) on Brown Tsaiya ducks. Methods: A total of 144 female Brown Tsaiya ducks were randomly allocated into three individual cage rearing chambers with different LED illumination colors as treatments. Three different treatments were: i) white color, ii) blue color, and iii) red color. The experiment periods were from ducks 21 to 49 weeks of age, determined traits included i) egg laying performance, ii) feed intake, iii) egg shell breaking strength, iv) egg shell thickness, v) egg Haugh unit, vi) egg weight, vii) serum Estradiol and Progesterone concentration, and viii) behavior pattern. Results: The results indicated that when compared with white and blue color, red color could stimulate ducks sexual maturation and raised the egg laying performance. The red light group was also observed to have the highest feed intake among three treatments. The blue treatment had the lowest egg shell breaking strength and the highest egg weight among three treatments, nevertheless, no significant difference was observed among three treatments on egg shell thickness and egg Haugh unit. The red light group had higher serum estradiol concentration than the white and blue groups, but no significant difference among treatments on the serum Progesterone concentration was found. The results of behavior pattern indicated that red light group showed more feeding and less resting behavior compared to the blue light group. Conclusion: We found a potential of applying red light illumination in the indoor laying duck raising system with positive results on egg laying performance and acceptable egg weight, equivalent egg qualities compared to white and blue light.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.31-38
• /
• 2016

Consumers demand fresh and high-quality eggs. Egg quality may be represented by shell color, shell weight, egg weight, shell thickness, shell density, albumen height, yolk color, albumen pH and viscosity. Various factors such as strain, age of hen, storage temperature, humidity, the presence of $CO_2$ and storage time affect egg quality. Therefore, we investigated the effects of storage time and temperature on egg quality to define the freshness of Korean market eggs. A total of 1,800 eggs were used for this experiment and were separated into 45 treatments with 40 eggs in each. The treatments were consisted of 15 storage periods (2 d to 30 d) and 3 storage temperatures ($2^{\circ}C$, $12^{\circ}C$, $25^{\circ}C$). Each egg was weighed and broken, and the height of the thick albumen, Haugh units (HU), egg shell color and yolk color were measured by a QCM+system. We also observed the physiochemical properties of eggs such as yolk pH, albumen pH and albumen viscosity. The egg weight, shell weight, albumen height, HU and albumen viscosity significantly decreased with increasing storage time and temperature. However, the albumen and yolk pH significantly increased with increasing storage period and temperature. The interaction effects between the storage period and temperature were significant for shell weight, shell density, egg weight, albumen height, HU, yolk color, yolk pH, albumen pH and albumen viscosity. In the analysis of the correlation with egg quality, the storage temperature exhibited a higher correlation coefficient than the storage period. In conclusion, storage time and temperature are the major factors affecting egg quality, but the storage temperature is a more sensitive determinant of egg quality deterioration compared with the storage period.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.254-259
• /
• 2009

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different levels of extracted pigment from Dietzia natronolimnaea biomass as a source of canthaxanthin in comparison with synthetic canthaxanthin on egg yolk pigmentation. The experiment used a completely randomized design (CRD). A total of 63 laying hens, 68 weeks old, were used and the birds were allotted to 7 dietary treatments with each treatment replicated three times with three hens per replicate. Treatments consisted of 3 levels of synthetic canthaxanthin (4, 8 and 16 ppm), 3 levels of extracted pigment from D. natronolimnaea biomass (4, 8 and 16 ppm) and control. Changes in yolk color were determined in 2 eggs taken at random, during the four week experimental period from each replicate. Supplementation of extracted pigment from D. natronolimnaea biomass had a significant effect on the color of egg yolks (p<0.05). Yolk color score of the control group was 6.83 in BASF color fan and the yolk color score of different extracted pigment levels was 11.00, 12.50 and 14.50, respectively. The yolk colors of different levels of synthetic canthaxanthin were 12.00, 14.00 and 15.00, respectively. The effect of pigment supplementation on egg yolk color was better explained by polynomial response curves. The $R_{2}$ indicated that for 3 supplementation levels of each pigment studied, over 90% of the color variation could be explained by the pigment concentration. The egg yolk color after 15 and 30 days of storage was not significantly different, but boiling reduced egg yolk color significantly (p<0.05).

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.115-122
• /
• 2016

The main purpose of the current study was to compare quality of eggs 1) produced from hens housed in battery cages vs. free range, 2) from young vs. old hens, and 3) tagged with the lowest vs. the highest price in a local franchised mart. The ages of hens, at which their eggs were used for the analysis of quality, were 70 weeks old in the experiment 1, 22 and 47 weeks old in the experiment 2, and were unknown in the experiment 3. Eggs were analyzed for weight, albumen height, Haugh unit, shell color, shell strength, shell thickness, shell weight, yolk color, yolk weight, and egg white weight. In the experiment 1, significant differences were detected between two housing systems in shell color, shell weight, yolk color, and yolk weight (P<0.05), but not in egg weight, albumen height, Haugh unit, shell strength, shell thickness, and egg white weight (P>0.05). Although egg weight was slightly but not significantly higher in battery cages by 2.2 g than in free range, yolk weight was significantly higher in battery cage (P<0.05). On the contrary, shell color was greatly increased in free range system by 68.5% compared with battery cage. In the experiment 2, there were significant differences between young and old hens in egg weight, albumen height, Haugh unit, shell strength, shell weight, yolk color and yolk weight (P<0.05). Egg weight, shell weight, yolk color and yolk weight were increased in old hens than young hens while albumen height, Haugh unit, and shell strength were decreased. In the experiment 3, egg weight, albumen height, Haugh unit, shell weight, and egg white weight were significantly higher in the highest priced eggs than the lowest ones (P<0.05), whereas shell strength and yolk color were lower (P<0.05) but shell color, shell thickness and yolk weight were not different (P>0.05). So, egg freshness was clearly higher in the highest priced ones than in the lowest (P<0.05). Due to the limited information on raising and husbandry of laying hens whose eggs were tested for egg quality in the current study, the present results should be cautiously interpreted while contributing to the future study as a basis in this field.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.7-12
• /
• 2000

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of feeding fermented food waste on the egg production and egg qualities in laying hens. A lot of 30 commercial layer(ISA Brown) at the age 58 weeks were placed in individual of 80% commercial feed and 20% fermented food waste(C80%+F20%), a mixture of 50% commercial feed and 50% fermented food waste (C50%+F50%), and a mixture of 20% commercial feed and 80% fermented food waste (C20%+F80%). Daily measurements were made on feed intake, egg production rate, egg weight, yolk color, Haugh unit, shell color during the experimental period. At the end of the experiment, body weight change and egg cholesterol contents were determined. The results indicate that up to 50% of basal diet could be supplied by fermented food waste with little depression in feed intake and efficiency in egg production (p＜0.01). Egg weight, egg shell thickness and Haugh units were not significant different between the treatments and the control. Egg color quality improved with increasing the proportion of the fermented food waste in the diet.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.161-166
• /
• 1995

To evaluate the nutritional values of Spirulina platensis as the protein supplement for laying heo diet, two experimental diets (Control, Spirulina platensis 2%) were prepared. Total 120, 40-wk old ISA Brown layer hens were randomly employed with 15 hens per replicate and 4 replicates per treatment. Hen-day egg production, egg weight, feed intake, intake /egg weight, egg shell thickness, yolk color score and yolk cholesterol content were examined during 6 weeks of experimental period. Hen-day egg production and feed conversion ratio (intake /egg weight) were significantly (P<0.01) improved by the 2% Spirulina plalensis supplementation. However, there were no differences in egg weight and feed intake between hens fed two experimental diets. Egg from hens fed Spirulina platensis 2% diet have more yellowish yolk color than the control egg although there was no difference in egg shell thickness. Yolk cholesterol content was significantly (P

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.203-211
• /
• 1999

This study was performed to develop brand egg. Forty-four week-old Isa Brown were randomly assigned to 8 treatments and the number of hens were 300 per each group. Experimental period was about 10 weeks. The 8 treatment were as follows : astarich 2%(A), astarich 5%(B), chitch chitosan 2%(C), omega-3 powder 2%(D), pyrogreen 1%(E), greenpia 0.2%(F), hydrogenated soy oil 3%(G) and commercial layer feed(H). Eggs were collected at day 0, 7, 14, 40 and 70 for egg quality analyses. Laying rate was significantly higher in astarich groups(B, C) than ant other group, showing average of 88% of laying rate. In terms of egg factors, whole egg weight was the heaviest in control in control(A) and the lightest in omega-3 powder group(E), while egg yolk weight was the heaviest in astarich group(H). Haugh unit(HU) was the mean of 70 for all treatments and there were no significant differences among the treatments. Egg yolk color was significantly different among treatments during experimental period whenever yolk color was measured. At the day 7 after feeding of experimental diets, the yolk color of astarich 5% group(C) was darker and that of omega-3 powder group(E) lighter. The value of yolk color in astarich 5%(C) and 2%(B) was 14.2 and 12.5, respectively. But the rest of the groups did not show any differences in yolk color, showing mean of 11.5. In terms of shell thickness, shell tended to become thinner, but there were no defferences among treatments during experimental period. The mean value of shell thickness was 0.390mm. In conclusion, astarich groups may seem to produce the best possible quality of brand egg.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.159-162
• /
• 2019

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary microbial-fermented molasses on egg production and egg quality in laying hens.In total, 90 Hy-line Brown laying hens were divided into two treatment groups (control and 1% microbial-fermented molasses)with three replicates of 15 birds each. During the experimental period, supplementation of hen diets with 1% microbial-fermented molassesdid not influence egg weight, hen-day egg production, egg mass, and feed conversion ratio (p > 0.05), except for feed intake. Regarding egg quality, diets containing 1% microbial-fermented molasses significantly affected eggshell thickness, Haugh unit, and albumen height (p < 0.05). However, there were no remarkable differences between control and 1% microbial-fermented molasses in eggshell color and egg yolk color (p > 0.05). These results indicate that supplementing 1% microbial-fermented molasses to the diet of laying hens improved egg quality parameters such as eggshell thickness, Haugh unit, and albumen height rather than egg production.

• Animal cells and systems
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.211-213
• /
• 2005

In bird species that suffer brood parasitism, the question about which sex is responsible for egg rejection has important implications for determining the coevolutionary relationship between brood parasites and their hosts. In order to determine which sex rejects a parasitic egg in vinous-throated parrotbills (Paradoxornis webbianus) which have egg color dimorphism, we conducted model egg experiments and video-recorded the behavior of the focal pair. Both sexes showed rejection behavior to the parasitic eggs. It indicates that the vinous-throated parrotbill may have a high rejection rate and faster spread of any rejection alleles through out populations. However, further studies are still needed to confirm the egg recognition mechanism in this species, which will expand our knowledge of the evolutionary relationship between host and parasite.