one hundred forty-four 26-wk-old white hy-line layers (w-36) were fed commercial diets containing 0, 1.5, 3 and 5% surplus date for three period of 28 days each to study the effects of dietary surplus date on hen performance (egg production, egg weight, egg mass, feed intake, feed conversion ratio ‘fcr’ and body weight gain) and egg quality parameters (haugh unit score, yolk colour index, yolk ...

an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary crude protein and methionine levels on quality and quantity of egg production. fifteen diets formulated with 3 levels of protein (13, 14 and 15%) and 5 levels of methionine (0.25, 0.28, 0.31, 0.34 and 0.37%) and fed to 420 birds in a 3×5 factorial arrangement. each diet was randomly fed to 4 replicates of 7 birds each and fed for 3 p...

To cite: Greaves F, Jha AK. BMJ Qual Saf 2014;23: 525–527. A famous cartoon in the satirical magazine Punch from the 1890s shows a meek curate assuring his dinner host that his egg is not spoiled. “Parts of it are exceptional”, he suggests. We, the knowing reader, appreciate the humour. An egg cannot be good in parts. For those who think about quality, the question of whether care can be good i...

A crossbreeding experiment was carried out between two Egyptian strains of chickens namely Mandarah (MM) and ElSalam (SS). The two purebred strains and their reciprocal crosses (MS and SM) were used to estimate the effect of crossing on egg laying and egg quality parameters, direct additive and maternal additive effects as well as heterosis and direct heterosis percentages for studied traits. R...

Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is a reproductive/respiratory disease in poultry implicated in suboptimum egg production and decreased hatchability. Commercial layer hens raised in a controlled environment were inoculated with the S6 strain of MG at 10 wk of age. Egg production and selected egg and egg quality parameters were quantitated over the entire lay cycle for inoculated and control birds....

The relationship between egg size and offspring phenotype is critical to our understanding of the selective pressures acting on the key reproductive life-history traits of egg size and number. Yet there is surprisingly little empirical evidence to support a strong, positive relationship between egg size and offspring quality (i.e., offspring growth, condition, and survival) in birds, in part be...