White Leghorn hens were fed diets containing 0, 300, 600, or 1200 ppm technical grade DDT for three 28-day periods. The 1200 ppm diet caused tremors and 33% mortality in the final period, but no gross toxicity symptoms were seen in birds fed the other diets. Egg production was decreased during the third period by 600 or 1200 ppm. Egg weight was decreased during the third period by 600 or 1200 p...

The eccentric shift of the sea-urchin egg within the fertilization membrane under an electric field was analysed by measuring the electrophoretic mobility of the isolated fertilization membrane and that of the egg deprived of the fertilization membrane. In addition, the migration speed of the egg proper was measured within the fertilization membrane under the conditions that: either (1) the mov...

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the impact of vitamin E and selenium (Se) supplementation on the performance, egg quality and hatchability of eggs from Japanese breeding quails. The experiment was conducted over a 60 day period using 135 quails in a completely randomized design (CRD) with two levels of vitamin E and two levels of selenium (80 mg/kg of vitamin E+0.2 mg/kg organi...

This review brings together the available literature that examines the effect of variations in pigmentation on the water vapour conductance of avian eggshells. Pheasant and Houbara bustard eggs provide some evidence that shell abnormalities can impact upon colour and water vapour conductance. By contrast, data from wild birds suggest that neither the degree of maculation or intensity of backgro...

s of papers 97 eggshell breaking strength, and eggshell percentage were no affected by treatments(P>0.05). Only eggshell thickness was affected by treatments (P<0.05), and RL showed the highest value( 0.1862 mm), followed by BL (0.1785mm).

Interspecific brood parasitism represents a prime example of the coevolutionary arms race where each party has evolved strategies in response to the other. Here, we investigated whether common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) actively select nests within a host population to match the egg appearance of a particular host clutch. To achieve this goal, we quantified the degree of egg matching using the a...

Due to its central position in the production chain, in-ovo development is influenced by pre-incubation factors that affect the quality of embryonated eggs and incubation conditions themselves, and both may influence egg hatchability and chick quality, as well as bird survival, growth performance, and phenotype in the field. The evolution of the incubation process over the years is characterize...

The paper is a review of the late treatments proposed in the literature to improve shell egg sanitisation and egg product pasteurisation. In a first part, the recent opinions adopted by the European Food Safety Authority on the washing and cooling of table eggs, as possible methods to reduce the risk for consumers, are presented and discussed. In the second part, the effects of in-shell treatme...