INOCULATION OF GLUCOSE IN OVO OF BROILER BREEDERS/EGGS: INCUBATION PARAMETERS AND INITIAL PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the glucose supplementation in embryonic low weight eggs on hatching parameters and performance of broiler chicks in the initial period. In the first experiment the treatments were the following: Eggs without supplementation, inoculated with water, inoculated with 0.2 mL of glucose + 0.4 mL of water, inoculated with 0.6 mL of glucose. In the second experiment the treatments were the following: High weight eggs without supplementation, low weight eggs without supplementation, low weight eggs inoculated with 0.6 mL of saline solution, low weight eggs inoculated with 0.1 g. of glucose in 0.6 mL of NaCl (0.9%) solution, low weight eggs inoculated with 0.2 g. of glucose in 0.6 mL of NaCl (0.9%) solution. The supplementation took place on the 16th day of incubation. The experimental design was in randomized blocks with four replicates for the first experiment and six replicates for the second experiment and ten birds in each replicate. There were evaluated the moment of internal pipping, external pipping, hatching time, embryo mortality, hatching rate and chick performance until ten days of age. The data were analyzed by PROG GLM of SAS software and Tukey test (P<0.05). In the first experiment the egg glucose supplementation did not affect the chicks performance (P>0.05) and the utilization of 0.6 mL of glucose decreased the hatching rate (P>0,05). The glucose supplementation in eggs did not improve the chick quality and the performance of chicks in the initial phase.

KEY WORDS: Incubation, in ovo nutrition, low weight chicks, post-hatching, pre-hatching.