Abstract: Measurements of changes in the number of cells of the chicken blastoderm during egg storage

Presented On The WPC In Brisbane, July 2008, By Inge Reijrink

I.A.M. Reijrink*, H.W.M. van Straaten‡, R. Meijerhof*, B. Kemp† and H. van den Brand†

*HatchTech Incubation Technology B.V., Veenendaal, the Netherlands; ‡ Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Maastricht; University, Maastricht, the Netherlands; † Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences, Adaptation Physiology Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands.

Egg storage longer than 7 days has been reported to have detrimental effects on hatchability and chick quality. At oviposition the embryo is composed of a multilayered blastoderm with a total of 30,000 to 90,000 cells according to rough estimates found in literature. Changes in the number of blastoderm cells during storage are not well defined. It can be hypothesized that a decrease in the total number of blastoderm cells negatively influences hatchability and chick quality after a pro-longed storage period.