Volume 8
Issue 4
Biology
JOURNAL OF
POLISH
AGRICULTURAL
UNIVERSITIES
Available Online: http://www.ejpau.media.pl/volume8/issue4/abs-41.html
THE OSTRICH AND EMU EGG HATCHABILITY WITH REFERENCE TO DEAD EMBRYO ANALYSIS
Monika Wiercińska, Danuta Szczerbińska
Department of Poultry and Ornamental Brids Breeding,
West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland
ABSTRACT
The factors limiting the development of ostrich and emu farming include their relatively low hatchability but neither the stages of emu and ostrich embryogenesis nor developmental abnormalities that occur during the incubation have been adequately studied. We carried out a hatchability analysis 5 times between February and April in the emu (n=50) and between May and July in the ostrich (n=69) on two farms in Poland in 2004. The eggs were collected for 14 days, stored at 16°C and 70% relative humidity and then incubated at 36.4°C and 25% relative humidity. The dead embryos were examined and measured for basic dimensions of the body and organs, the state of embryonic membranes, malpositioning, morphological malformations, downiness, degree of yolk sack absorption as well as the appearance of the skin and internal organs. Lower hatchability from both set (49.3%±27.7) and fertilised (77.3%±27.7) eggs was found in the emu. In the ostrich, the indices were, respectively, 68.0%±23.3 and 82.9±11.3. During the incubation, 7 ostrich and 9 emu embryos died, which represented 17.1% and 20.4% fertilised eggs, respectively. Two malformed ostrich and two emu embryos have been described. The ostriches exhibited anophthalmia, cyclopia, and beak malformations, while a pair of twins shared one yolk sack. The emus suffered encephalocele, torticollis, and beak malformations, as well as conjoined twins were found. Other dead embryos had normal morphological structure, however, presented other conditions such as oedema of head and legs, unabsorbed yolk sacks and malpositioning. The study described in this paper showed that mortality of embryos and anomalies applied only to beak malformations occurring during their development were similar in both bird species.
Key words: embryo mortality, developmental malformations, avian twins, conjoined twins.
Monika Wiercińska
Department of Poultry and Ornamental Brids Breeding,
West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland
Doktora Judyma 24, 71-466 Szczecin, Poland
email: m.wiercinska@interia.pl
Danuta Szczerbińska
Department of Poultry and Ornamental Brids Breeding,
West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland
20 Doktora Judyma St.
71-466 Szczecin, Poland
Responses to this article, comments are invited and should be submitted within three months of the publication of the article. If accepted for publication, they will be published in the chapter headed 'Discussions' and hyperlinked to the article.