COMPARISON OF PROXIMATE COMPOSITION, INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL QUALITIES OF EGGS FROM FOUR SPECIES OF POULTRY MARKETED IN SAMARU ZARIA, NIGERIA

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare the proximate composition, internal and external qualities of eggs from four species of poultry (exotic chicken: ISA brown, local chicken: normal feathered, guinea fowl and quail), marketed in Samaru Zaria, Nigeria. A total of 240 eggs (60 for each specie) was purchased within the Samaru environment in Zaria, Nigeria. Data collected was subjected to one way analysis of variance procedure of SAS. Results showed that for most of the internal egg quality traits studied, exotic chicken had the highest value followed by guinea fowl and local chicken. The albumen pH ranged from 7.84 (for quail egg) to 8.35 (for guinea fowl egg), which is within normal pH range of 7.5 to 8.5 reported in literature. For external egg quality traits, the results showed that, there was significant difference (P<0.05) for most of the tested parameters. The exotic chicken egg is significantly (P0.05) heavier (56.116g) than others. This translates to other related traits as egg length and egg diameter, which were significantly higher in eggs from the exotic chicken as compared to eggs from other poultry species. However, eggs from guinea fowl had the highest value for egg shell thickness (0.414mm) and egg shell weight (7.116g) compared to eggs from other poultry species. This means guinea fowl eggs may have advantage over eggs from other poultry species to withstand cracks and breakages during handling and transportation.