This study was carried out to determine the effects of diets containing different amounts of poppy seed meal (PSM) and yeast culture (S. cerevisiae) on performance and egg quality parameters of laying hens. A total of 160 laying hens, 40 weeks old, were divided into four groups of 40 hens each, which were in turn subdivided into four subgroups of 10 hens’ experimental replicates. The animals in...

A 10 wk trial was conducted to investigate the effect of using ground, sterilized eggshell as a calcium source in the diet of laying hens. Egg production, egg and eggshell quality, hatching characteristics and eggshell ultrastructure were evaluated. A total of 144 hens aged 25 wk were housed in floor pens, located in a conventional open-sided layer shed. The birds were randomly divided into thr...

The current study was conducted to compare and contrast the uses of 2 devices (temperature transponder or infrared thermometer) and their locations (inner air cell membrane or outer eggshell surface) in Ross × Ross 708 broiler hatching eggs. The air cells of 14 embryonated and 10 nonembryonated eggs were implanted with temperature transponders on d 13.5 of incubation. Likewise, for these same e...

We compared eggshell thickness of hatched eggs with that of non-developed eggs in endangered falcon taxa to explore the effect of embryo development on eggshell thinning. To our knowledge, this has never been examined before in falcons, despite the fact that eggshell thinning due to pollutants and environmental contamination is often considered the most common cause of egg failure in falcons. B...

Cuttlefish eggs were exposed to background concentrations of dissolved Ag and Cd, using the radiotracers (110m)Ag and (109)Cd. At different time of the embryonic development (50 days), some eggs were placed in non-contaminating conditions. During the experiment, the uptake and depuration kinetics, and distribution of these metals among the egg compartments (i.e. eggshell, vitellus, peri-vitelli...

Objective. The objective of this study was to investigate changes in pigment, spectral transmission and element content of chicken eggshells with different intensities of pink pigment during the incubation period. We also investigated the effects of the region (small pole, equator and large pole) and pink pigment intensity of the chicken eggshell on the percent transmission of light passing thr...

STRNKOVÁ JANA, NEDOMOVÁ ŠÁRKA, KUMBÁR VOJTĚCH, TRNKA JAN. 2016. Tensile Strength of the Eggshell Membranes. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 64(1): 159–164. The mechanical behaviour of eggshell membranes under tensile loading has been studied. Samples from diff erent bird species (hen, goose and Japanese quail) have been used. Samples were cut out of the m...

Eggshell colouration is thought to function as a female-specific secondary sexual trait. While tests of this idea are rapidly accumulating in cavity-nesting birds, some fundamental underlying assumptions remain rarely investigated: namely, can males see eggshell coloration and perceive colour differences between the eggs of different females? We tested these two key assumptions in a natural pop...