Effects of Age and Management System on Egg Quality Traits of Fulani Ecotype Hens

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine the effect of age and management system on egg quality traits of Fulani ecotype hens. Egg quality traits were measured at 20, 22 and 24 weeks of age from 45 Fulani ecotype hens reared in the cage and deep litter systemofmanagement.However,50to70eggswereutilizedatdifferentages. DatawerecollectedonEggweight(EW),Egg length (EL), Egg width (EWD), Shell weight (SW), Shell thickness (ST), Yolk weight (YW), Yolk width (YWD), Yolk height (YH), Albumen length (AL), Albumen width (AWD), Albumen weight (AW), Albumen height (AH), Yolk index (YI), Albumen index (AI) and Haugh unit (HU); analysed for fixed effect of age and fixed effect of management system. Significant (p<0.05) differences wereobservedinexternalandinternaleggqualitiesatdifferentagesandmanagementsystems. Eggweight,egglengthand egg width increase linearly to 24 weeks of age. Age influenced all the observed internal egg qualities except yolk width. Management system had a significant effect on egg weight, egg length, shell weight, yolk weight and yolk height but was significantly (p<0.05) influenced in eggs collected from deep litter system. The results indicated that age of the birds and system of management significantly affects egg quality traits. Consequently, it was concluded that Fulani ecotype egg quality traits were better in deep litter system of management and egg quality traits differ significantly at different ages.