A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GUINEA FOWL AND DOMESTIC CHICKEN EGGS

Abstract

Some physical and chemical parameters of eggs from the domestic chicken and guinea fowl, reared under identical conditions were studied in order to determine the difference in their composition. The eggs analyzed were collected from domestic chickens (Warren Strain) and domesticated guinea fowls (Grey breasted pearl strains) which were about 40 weeks old and maintained on the same layer diet with groundnut cake as the protein source. The guinea fowl had significantly higher shell thickness than chicken egg shell, but the latter showed greater variation in shell thickness between eggs. Correlations between a number of physical and chemical parameters were small in both chicken and guinea fowl eggs. Although the chicken egg had significantly higher albumen and yolk contents compared to the guinea fowl egg, the protein, fat and amino acid composition of the two types of eggs, expressed as gram per 100g edible portion, were independent of breed.