THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SELECTED EGG QUALITY TRAITS AND EGG SIZE

Abstract

The relationships between selected egg quality traits and sizes of eggs were studied in a part of the South Western Nigeria with a view to egg marketers and to investigating the variation in egg quality egg size changes. 320 market eggs and 40 freshly-laid eggs collected from a poultry farm were used for the study in which egg weight, specific gravity, haugh units, percent yolk, percent albumen, shell thickness and percent shell measurements were obtained. Quality traits for small and large-sized eggs were observed as: Egg Weight (53.34 vs 67.07 g), shell thickness (0.375 mm Vs 0.377mm), Percent shell (9.60 Vs 8.94), specific gravity (1.073 1.069), haugh unit (67.65 Vs 61.38), Percent albumen (62.28 Vs 64.35) and percent yolk (28.13 Vs 26.71), respectively. Egg size was observed to correlate positively with percent albumen (P<0.05) and shell thickness. It, however, correlated negatively with all other quality traits measured. Regression models between eggsize and the various quality traits were also established. It was concluded that small-sized eggs could be of better quality in terms of the traits measured.