Comparative study of physical egg quality characteristics of naked neck and bovans chicken in diverse ages in coastal areas of Ampara district

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.