Background: Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and therefore are widespread in nature. Those that lyse the pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (SE) should be expected in niches in which this bacterium thrives, among others the avian egg. Furthermore, bacteriophages could remain viable in this milieu. Results: Upon artificially infecting hen eggs with the SE bacteriopha...

________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract Dietary conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) causes adverse effects on quality of eggs by modifying the fatty acid composition of the yolk. Supplementing oils prevent CLA-induced changes, but cause a decrease in the level of egg CLA. The objective of the study was to investigate the incorporation of CLA into the...

Eggs from Cobb broiler breeders were incubated for 18 d. Eggs were not turned (T0) or were turned until 9 (T9), 12 (T12), 15 (T15), or 18 (T18) d. First, the effects of turning on embryo and albumen weights were studied. Samples of eggs were opened at d 9, 12, 15, and 18 for embryo and albumen weighing. The results show that embryos from unturned eggs had lower weights and higher remaining albu...

I. The course of digestion of freeze-dried and heat-damaged egg albumen labelled with 14C in all its constituent amino acids was compared in germ-free and conventional chicks. The albumen was given at a level of 10 % in a test meal containing 28 % protein. Samples of digesta were taken 5 h later and analysed for 14C and nitrogenous constituents. 2. After administration of unheated albumen, II y...

Indigenous chickens (IC) are mainly raised by resource poor rural households in developing countries [1]. Although they are of low genetic potential compared to the commercial breeds, IC play a vital role in livelihoods of farmers and contribute significantly to food security and income [1]. IC dominates in most smallholder farms in Malawi and they are deemed less productive but appear to be ad...

This experiment was conducted, during a seven-week period to investigate, the effects of using various levels of garlic cloves and turmeric rhizome powders, on laying hens’ performance, egg quality characteristics and cholesterol content in yolk. Two hundred and sixteen, 27-weeks old Novogen white laying hens were assigned randomly into nine treatments with eight replicates of three birds each....

Egg shell quality and egg internal quality are of major importance to the egg industry worldwide. This review covers the formation of the hen’s egg and ways of measuring egg shell quality and egg internal quality. Egg shell quality may be measured as egg size, egg specific gravity and shell color, shell breaking strength, shell deformation (destructive or non-destructive), shell weight, percent...

The influence of AME(n) concentration of the diet on productive performance and egg quality traits was studied in Hy-Line brown egg-laying hens differing in initial BW from 24 to 59 wk of age. Eight treatments were arranged factorially with 4 diets varying in energy content (2,650, 2,750, 2,850, and 2,950 kcal of AME(n)/kg) and 2 initial BW of the hens (1,733 vs. 1,606 g). Each treatment was re...