Effect of egg mass of the white Italian goose on fertilisation, loss of weight during the incubation period, hatchability and gosling quality

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to determine the effect of egg mass and egg weight groups (group I eggs under 160 g, group II egg mass 160 g to 180 g and group III eggs over 180 g) on incubation results, loss of egg weight (moist) during incubation, gosling hatchability and the relative share of the gosling in the egg mass. Eggs with mass between 160 g and 180 g (group II) demonstrated the highest fertilisation rate (91.28 %) and the highest hatchability out of the number of incubated eggs (83.14 %), while the eggs from the group I (lighter than 160 g) showed the highest number of gosling hatchability out of the number of fertilised eggs (91.08 %). The lowest embryo mortality was that of the group I (5.17 % and 6.06 %), while the highest is reported for the group III (14.29 % and 16.67 %). The lowest relative loss of egg mass (moist) by day 25 of the incubation period was established for the group I eggs (10.98 %), and the highest for the group III (11.71 %), with a statistically significant (P lt 0.01) difference of -0.73 %. Other differences were not statistically significant (P>0.05). Gosling percentage in the egg mass was significantly higher (P lt 0.001) in the group III of incubated eggs (67.81 %) than in the group II (66.61 %) and the group I (65.24 %).