Abstract:

The objective of this study was to investigate variation in productive traits and egg quality in three strains of laying hens: Rhode Island Red (strains R-11 and K-22) and Rhode Island White (strain A-33). The present study confirmed that hen origin (genotype) has an impact on performance, reproductive results, and egg quality traits. The results showed that the analysed strains were in good health during both rearing and production. R-11 and K-22 strains were found to differ considerably from A-33 in terms of the evaluated productive traits, in particular the body weight, the egg weight, and hatchability parameters. The results also demonstrated differences in the quality of eggs from hens of the compared strains. This particularly concerned traits such as shell colour, weight of egg, shell and yolk, and shell quality parameters. It was also confirmed that many of the egg and shell quality traits change with age of the birds. All of the results reported here provide valuable information for characterizing these unique breeding strains.

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