Abstract:
The chicken egg is a high-quality protein food widely
consumed all over the world. Consumer acceptance is a determining
factor of egg quality with respect to cleanliness, freshness, egg
weight, shell quality, yolk index, albumen index, Haugh unit and
chemical composition. The present study investigated the physical
quality characteristics of eggs of Naked neck (village) and Bovans
(commercial) chicken breeds in coastal areas of Ampara district. A
total of 60 eggs, 30 from each breed were purchased for analysis.
The eggs were stored at room temperature during analysis. The
egg weight, egg length, egg width, shape index, shell weight, shell
thickness, albumen pH, albumen height, Haugh unit, yolk height,
yolk length, yolk width, yolk index and yolk color were determined.
The study revealed that the egg weight, shell width, shell weight,
shell thickness and yolk color were significantly different (p<0.01)
between the eggs of Naked neck and Bovans breeds whereas egg
length, shape index, albumin pH, albumen height, Haugh unit, yolk
height, yolk length, yolk width and yolk index were not significantly
different (p<0.05). The mean egg weight of Naked neck chicken was
lower than Bovans chicken’s eggs. The shell strength of Bovans
chicken eggs is better than Naked neck chicken eggs. From the
findings of the study, it is concluded that several physical external
quality characteristics investigated are found to be at a higher level
in Bovans chicken eggs than in Naked neck chicken eggs.
