Czech J. Anim. Sci., 2007, 52(4):110-115 | DOI: 10.17221/2269-CJAS

The effects of housing systems and age of hens on the weight and cholesterol concentration of the egg

Ľ. Zemková, J. Simeonovová, M. Lichovníková, K. Somerlíková
Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, Brno, Czech Republic

The effects of laying hen age and the housing of laying hens in conventional cages, enriched cages, litter system and outdoor system on egg weight and yolk and egg cholesterol concentration were studied. ISA brown laying hens were used in the experiment. The characteristics were measured at 39, 50, 59, 68 and 75 weeks of age. Fifteen eggs were always collected from each housing system. In total, 300 eggs were analyzed. There were not any significantly different results in the eggs from the hens living in the different housing systems or from the age of laying hens on the weight of eggs. But the housing system and the age of hens had a significant (P ≤ 0.01) effect on both yolk and egg cholesterol concentration. The concentration of yolk and egg cholesterol was the lowest (P ≤ 0.01) in the enriched cages (12.5 mg/g yolk and 211.2 mg/egg) and the highest in the litter technology (14.1 mg/g yolk and 242.6 mg/egg). Further, there was a significant (P ≤ 0.01) influence of the interaction between the housing system and the age of hens on egg weight and on yolk and egg cholesterol concentration.

Keywords: conventional cages; enriched cages; litter system; outdoor system; yolk cholesterol; egg weight

Published: April 30, 2007  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Zemková Ľ, Simeonovová J, Lichovníková M, Somerlíková K. The effects of housing systems and age of hens on the weight and cholesterol concentration of the egg. Czech J. Anim. Sci. 2007;52(4):110-115. doi: 10.17221/2269-CJAS.
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Basmacioglu H., Ergul M. (2005): Research on the factors affecting cholesterol content and some other characteristics of eggs in laying hens - the effect of genotype and rearing system. Turk. J. Vet. Anim. Sci., 29, 157- 164.
    2. Cerolini S., Zaniboni L., Cognata La R. (2005): Lipid characteristics in eggs produced in different housing systems. Ital. J. Anim. Sci., 4, 520.
    3. Chand D. (1987): Comparison of egg yolk cholesterol levels in White Plymouth Rock, White Cornish and New Hampshire breeds of poultry. Indian Vet. J., 64, 1024-1028.
    4. Chung S.L., Ferrier L.K., Squires E.J. (1991): Survey of cholesterol level of commercial eggs produced on Canadian farms. Can. J. Anim. Sci., 71, 205-209. Go to original source...
    5. Ingr I., Simeonová J. (1983): Rychlé stanovení cholesterolu Bio-La testem. Vet. Med., 28, 97-104. Go to original source...
    6. Jiang Z.R., Sim J.S. (1991): Egg cholesterol values in relation to the age of laying hens and to egg and yolk weights. Poult. Sci., 78, 1838-1841. Go to original source...
    7. Leyendecker M., Hamann H., Hartung J., Kamphues J., Ring C., Gluender G., Ahlers C., Sander I., Neumann U., Distl O. (2001): Analysis of genotype-environment interactions between layer lines and housing systems for performance traits, egg quality and bone breaking strength: 1st communication: Performance traits. Zuchtungskunde, 73, 290-307.
    8. Li Yun Lin, Min Hsiung Lee (1996): Effect of hen's age on the composition of yolk lipid. Food Sci. Taiwan, 23, 168-173.
    9. Mohan B., Mani V., Nagarajan S. (1991): Effect of different housing system on the physical qualities of commercial chicken eggs. Indian J. Poult. Sci., 26, 130-131.
    10. O'Sullivan N.P., Dunnington E.A., Siegel P.B. (1991): Relationships among age of dam, egg components, embryo lipid transfer, and hatchability of broiler breeder eggs. Poult. Sci., 70, 2180-2158. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    11. Oloyo R.A. (2003): Effect of age on total lipid and cholesterol of hen eggs. Indian J. Anim. Sci., 73, 94-96.
    12. Pandey N.K., Panda B., Maitra D.N., Mahapatra C.M. (1989): The influence of strain, age and season on cholesterol, vitamin A and fatty acid contents of egg. J. Food Sci. Technol.-India, 26, 161-163.
    13. Peebles E.D., Zumwalt C.D., Doyle S.M., Gerard P.D., Latour M.A., Boyle C.R., Smith T.W. (2000): Effects of breeder age and dietary fat source and level on broiler hatching egg characteristics. Poult. Sci., 79, 698-704. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    14. Premavalli K., Viswanathan K., Pandiyan V. (2005): The influence of system of management on the yolk cholesterol. Indian Vet. J., 82, 172-174. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    15. Sauveur B. (1991): Effect of method of rearing of fowls on egg characters. Prod. Anim., 4, 123-130. Go to original source...
    16. Shafey T.M., Dingle J.G., McDonald M.W. (1998): The relationships between egg yolk cholesterol, egg production and age of the hen in three Australian layer strains. J. King Saud Univ. Agric. Sci., 10, 33-41.
    17. Silversides F.G., Scott T.A. (2001): Effect of storage and layer age on quality of eggs from two lines of hens. Poult. Sci., 80, 1240-1245. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...
    18. Thomas D.V., Ravindran V. (2005): Comparison of layer performance in cage and barn systems. J. Anim. Vet. Adv., 4, 554-556.
    19. Tůmová E., Ebeid T. (2005): Effect of time of oviposition on egg quality characteristics in cages and in a litter housing system. Czech J. Anim. Sci., 50, 129-134. Go to original source...
    20. Van den Brand H., Parmentier H.K., Kemp B. (2004): Effects of housing system (outdoor vs. cages) and age of laying hens on egg characteristics. Brit. Poult. Sci., 45, 745-752. Go to original source... Go to PubMed...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY NC 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content