COMPARISON OF EGG QUALITY TRAITS IN DIFFERENT POULTRY SPECIES AND BREEDS

Using 815 eggs randomly collected from 29 breeds of chickens, mallard, Muscovy, quails, guinea fowl, turkey, and ostrich, this study compared internal and external egg quality traits between poultry species and between breeds within species. Among poultry species used for commercial egg production, the mallard ducks had significantly (P<0.05) the highest weight of egg, yolk, albumen, and shell, shell thickness, short, and long circumference which is  followed by chickens and quails. Both quail and mallard eggs have higher yolk-albumen ratio than chicken eggs. Chicken egg yolks are more deeply hued than quail and mallard. Both mallard and chicken eggs were more elongated (less round) than quail eggs. Philippine native chickens (Banabang Kalabaw, Joloano, Paraoakan, and Palawan-lasak) have significantly (P<0.05) lower egg weight, albumen weight, short, and long circumference than commercial egg-type and dual-purpose breeds. Percent yolk, percent albumen, yolk-albumen ratio, yolk color, albumen height, Haugh unit, and external egg quality traits were significantly different (P<0.05) among the native breeds. Itik-Pinas (IP) mallard breeds (IP-Itim, IP-Khaki, and Kayumanggi-IP) were significantly different (P<0.05) for yolk weight, percent yolk, percent albumen, yolk-albumen ratio, yolk color, albumen height, Haugh unit, shell weight, percent shell, shell thickness, and short circumference. Quail and turkey eggs showed significant breed differences (P<0.05) for percent yolk, percent albumen and yolk-albumen ratio.