Fertility and Hatchability in Duck Eggs: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Ducks are waterfowl belonging to the Anatidae family of cosmopolitan distribution. In duck production systems, obtaining ducklings at one-day-old is determinant for the productive chain. The egg production in some species of ducks reaches about 250 to 300 eggs per year. Obtaining one-day-old ducklings can be done by natural incubation with a broody female duck or artificially in an incubator. During artificial incubation, fertility and hatchability are the most important indicators that must be controlled, because they influence the supply of ducklings to the farm. Many factors are related to fertility and hatching, such as environmental conditions, production system, season, nutrition, management of broodstock, storage time of egg and cleaning of eggs before the incubation. According to some reports, Pekin eggs have greater hatchability than Muscovy eggs. The eggs of Muscovy have presented values lower than 22.7% of hatchability. The hatchability of Pekin duck eggs was 78.0% in the spring, while in summer it was around 46.5%. The best hatchability is observed during the winter (57.68%), as in the summer it decreases to 54.14%. The reproductive characteristics of flocks, age, external and internal quality of the egg, male female relation, and presence of lethal genes are factors that directly involve breeders. Larger sexual ratios between males and females of 1:4.3 to 1: 10 cause reduced egg fertility from 75.9% down to 49.6%. Successful production of day-old ducklings starts with the proper selection and management of breeding stock, proper post-lay handling of fertile eggs and the correct incubation process. There are different methods used to improve the hatchability such as dipping eggs in nutrients during the incubation period.

Full text

Fertility and hatchability in duck eggs
M.E. ABD EL-HACK
1
*, C.B. HURTADO
2
, D.M. TORO
3
, M. ALAGAWANY
1
*,
E.M. ABDELFATTAH
4
and S.S. ELNESR
5
1
Poultry Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig 44511,
Egypt;
2
Department of Livestock Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and
Zootechnic, University of Córdoba, Monteria 230002, Colombia;
3
Laboratory of
Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Autonomous University of
Queretaro, Queretaro 76230, Mexico;
4
Department of Animal Science, University of
California Davis, Meyer Hall, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616. USA;
5
Poultry
Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, Fayoum,
63514, Egypt
*Corresponding author: m.ezzat@zu.edu.eg; dr.mahmoud.alagwany@gmail.com
Ducks are waterfowl belonging to the Anatidae family of cosmopolitan distribution.
In duck production systems, obtaining ducklings at one-day-old is determinant for
the productive chain. The egg production in some species of ducks reaches about
250 to 300 eggs per year. Obtaining one-day-old ducklings can be done by natural
incubation with a broody female duck or artificially in an incubator. During
artificial incubation, fertility and hatchability are the most important indicators
that must be controlled, because they influence the supply of ducklings to the
farm. Many factors are related to fertility and hatching, such as environmental
conditions, production system, season, nutrition, management of broodstock,
storage time of egg and cleaning of eggs before the incubation. According to
some reports, Pekin eggs have greater hatchability than Muscovy eggs. The eggs
of Muscovy have presented values lower than 22.7% of hatchability. The
hatchability of Pekin duck eggs was 78.0% in the spring, while in summer it was
around 46.5%. The best hatchability is observed during the winter (57.68%), as in
the summer it decreases to 54.14%. The reproductive characteristics of flocks, age,
external and internal quality of the egg, male female relation, and presence of lethal
genes are factors that directly involve breeders. Larger sexual ratios between males
and females of 1:4.3 to 1: 10 cause reduced egg fertility from 75.9% down to 49.6%.
Successful production of day-old ducklings starts with the proper selection and
management of breeding stock, proper post-lay handling of fertile eggs and the
correct incubation process. There are different methods used to improve the
hatchability such as dipping eggs in nutrients during the incubation period.
Keywords: ducks; fertility; hatchability; eggs; incubation
© World's Poultry Science Association 2019
World's Poultry Science Journal, Vol. 75, December 2019
Received for publication November 3, 2018
Accepted for publication September 4, 2019 1
doi:10.1017/S0043933919000060
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Introduction
Ducks are waterfowl that belong to the Anatidae family. Other waterfowl such as loons,
grebes, gallinules and coots may be confused with this species (Idahor et al., 2015;
Ericson et al., 2017; Farghly et al., 2018a) but do not represent a monophyletic group;
therefore, swans and geese are not considered ducks. They are distributed throughout the
world, except in Antarctica (Idahor et al., 2015), due to their adaptability to different
environments. Because of the variable market demand for a one-day-old chick by the
duck industry, fertility and hatchability are important economic factors which represent
the major components of reproductive performance and are sensitive to environmental
and genetic factors (Widiyaningrum et al., 2016).
Fertility is defined as the percentage of embryonated eggs after three days placement in
the incubator; meanwhile, hatchability is the percentage of fertile eggs that hatch
(King'ori, 2011; Taplah et al., 2018). Fertility and hatchability are affected by genetic
and non-genetic factors. For a particular variety, non-genetic factors have a greater
influence on fertility and hatchability in production (King'ori, 2011), Including
management of the breeder, egg quality, and incubation processes. The management
of breeding stock includes genetic selection (Drouilhet et al., 2014), age of the
breeders (King'ori, 2011), season and feeding (King'ori, 2011), breeding system and
breeding technology (Weis et al., 2011) and egg quality (Hester, 2017). The objective
of the following review was to provide advanced information about the factors that affect
fertility and hatchability of duck eggs and ways to improve them.
Fertility
Fertility can be affected by the quality of broodstock, male:female ratio, environmental
temperature, storage time and housing systems. Brillard (2003) stated that fertility
depends on the ability of females to ovulate, store sperm and provide an appropriate
environment for the formation and development of the egg. Likewise, Brillard (2003) and
Mohan et al. (2018) reported that the quality and quantity of semen deposited by the
male were important to obtain good fertility. However, there are differences between
duck breeds.
Muscovy ducks age influences the reproductive characteristics of both females and
males (Yakubu, 2013). For flocks from the same breed, differences in fertility have been
reported for different batches of eggs. In Muscovy ducks, the highest fertility is obtained
at the peak of posture, compared to the moments before or after the peak of posture
(Nickolova, 2005). Genitalia of waterfowl is more complicated than chickens, making the
fertility issue more prevalent in ducks than in chickens, as well as the issue of sexual
dimorphism in body size in some breeds of ducks and crossbreeding (Yakubu et al.,
2015).
The male:female ratio in all poultry species plays an important role in achieving greater
fertility. For Muscovy ducks a ratio of one drake to five ducks is used according to Idahor
et al. (2015) and one to four according to Nickolova (2005) and Alonso-Alvarez (2006).
In Muscovy ducks, a ratio of one to six has been used satisfactorily where there is a
shortage of males (Banerjee, 2013). However, larger sexual ratios of 1:4.3 to 1:10 cause a
reduced egg fertility from 75.9% down to 49.6% (Nickolova, 2005), which corresponded
with a loss in fertility from 97.09% to 93.41% when the sex ratio was increased from 1:5
to 1:8. In Khaki Campbell ducks, Giri et al. (2014) studies the ideal mating sex ratio for
production of fertile eggs under intensive rearing and concluded that a 1:5 sex mating
ratio was ideal for better fertility and hatchability.
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Fertility and hatchability in duck: M.E. Abd El-Hack et al.
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An increase of the environmental temperature above the optimal ranges of thermal
comfort in poultry affects productive performance of breeders. According to Chowdhury
et al. (2004), heat stress causes a decrease in the number of germ cells, ovular release,
fertilisation and survival capacity of the embryo and abnormalities in sperm of the
Northern Pintail duck (Penfold et al., 2000). The latter decreases deposition of sperm
in the host gland in the reproductive system of female (Brillard, 2003; Abd El-Hack et
al., 2018). Fertility was significantly higher at months from January to May as compared
to June to August months and was significantly lowered by 9.70%, 12.72% and 14.29%
in Summer as compared to Autumn, Winter and Spring season, respectively (Awad,
2013)
The storage time before the incubation of Pekin duck eggs has a significant effect on
their fertility, hatchability and early embryo mortality (Waehner et al., 2015). Reyna and
Burggren (2017) reported a decrease in the fertility of duck eggs stored for more than six
days from laying to incubation.
Housing system influences the fertility of ducks, allows mass mating and provides
access to swimming, which significantly increases the fertility rate as ducks are waterfowl
by nature and prefer to mate in water (Ojewola, 2006). However, egg weight linearly
improves fertility; in Khaki Campbell ducks, the egg weight increased from 60 g to 75 g
when they had water access, which positively affected egg fertility (Giri et al., 2014).
Hatchability
Factors attributed to the breeding birds, such as genetic selection, management and
feeding, handling and storage of eggs and conditions inside the incubator can
influence the hatchability of duck eggs. Archer et al. (2017) and Ramli et al. (2017)
stated that the temperature, relative humidity, ventilation and turning of the eggs
throughout incubation and hatching were environmental factors that can modify
hatchability.
BREEDER MANAGEMENT
Breeders must use breeds with good genetic characteristics at optimal ages to obtain
high fertility, hatchability and growth performance of progeny. The time of year and the
feeding conditions play an important role in the development of the embryo, before and
after incubation.
Genetic characteristics can influence the productive indicators of different breeds of
ducks in varying ways. The Muscovy lineages, compared to the Pekin duck, show higher
mortality due to adhesion to the egg shell and for normal ducklings, however, Pekin duck
eggs have better hatchability than Muscovy eggs (Rashid et al., 2009). The eggs of the
Muscovy such have shown less than 22.7% of hatchability (Ali et al., 1989). The fertility
and hatchability of laying Brown Tsaiya ducks were increased when a genetic selection
was made and one artificial insemination per week was combined with Muscovy semen
(Cheng et al., 2002).
AGE
The age of female ducks has more influence on fertility than age of males (Brommer
and Rattiste, 2008). After 24 days of incubation, the relative weight of the yolk sac, with
respect to total egg weight, increased in hens at 36 weeks compared with Pekin ducks at
26 and 31 weeks of age (Applegate et al., 1998). On the other hand, increasing the age of
the female decreases the functioning of the sperm storage tubules, leading to problems in
the reproductive system which influences egg quality.
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In addition, the age of ducks affects the external and internal quality of eggs,
influencing both hatchability and fertility. The ratio between yolk and albumin
decreased with increasing age of the birds (Peebles et al., 2001). Larger eggs have
comparatively less shell area per unit of interior weight than smaller ones, therefore,
those from older broodstock have less weight when calculated in grams and more in
percentage than the eggs of younger broodstock (Onasanya et al., 2013). Age affects the
deposition of calcium and minerals in the shell (Onbaşılar et al., 2014). The shell allows
gaseous exchange and loss of moisture from the egg, and poor shell quality results in
excessive loss of relative humidity during incubation (Peebles et al., 2001).
SEASON
The season when laying takes place affects fertility of ages and hatchability of
ducklings, due to differences in temperature, wind speed, rainfall and relative
humidity (Buhr, 1995; Farghly et al., 2018b; Li et al., 2018). Chowdhury et al.
(2004) observed a high significance between the month and hatchability of Pekin
duck eggs, where the hatchability in January was 59.54 ± 0.79%, but in July it
decreased to 48.27 ± 0.79%. The best hatchability of Pekin duck eggs is observed
during the winter (57.68 ± 0.59%), but during the summer it decreases to 54.14 ±
0.59%, and the lowest values are found in the monsoon or rainy season (49.13 ±
0.59%) (Chowdhury et al., 2004). Hatchability of duck eggs showed the highest value
in March (65.21%), but the lowest value (34.96%) was observed in August (Awad,
2013). Fertility and hatchability were lower in the summer months compared to other
seasons due to high environmental temperature that causes a decrease in the reproductive
efficiency in both male and female ducks.
NUTRITION
During egg formation, essential nutrients are deposited for the development of embryo
during the incubation period and form reserves for the developing embryo until the first
meal becomes available to the young birds (El-Kholy et al., 2019; Saeed et al., 2019).
The nutrients are used for tissue formation, heat generation and muscle activity, and are
stored in both albumin and yolk (Uni et al., 2012; Onbaşılar et al., 2014). Egg albumin
from eggs from Pekin ducks is mainly water (85.7 to 88.1%) containing 10.9% to 13.1%
water-soluble proteins and represents from 53.0% to 55.6% of the total egg content.
Although the yolk only represents 31.3% to 33.9% of the egg content and 41.7% to
44.1% is water, it has higher protein reserves (17.3% to 17.8%), lipids (35% to 38.4%)
and minerals (Yair and Uni, 2011).
Nutrient deficiencies impede the proper development of embryos, reduce hatchability
and increase embryonic death, in addition to causing disorders of the musculoskeletal
system, immune system and cardiovascular system (Uni et al., 2012). The nutrients in the
egg determine the weight of the duckling at birth, body size and hatchability. Therefore,
feeding ducks correctly can increase deposition of nutrients in the egg, without causing
any change in weight of the broodstock, which are important factors to consider to avoid
low quality ejaculation and ovulation and, at an extreme, early ovarian and testicular
regression (Brillard, 2003).
Certain nutrients and food ingredients have adverse effects on the quality and quantity
of eggs produced by ducks. Anti-nutritional factors, such as gossypol from cotton seed
meal, cause infertility in males manifested as immobility of sperm caused by damage to
the mitochondria located in the tail of sperm, and extensive damage to the germinal
epithelium (Randel et al., 1992). Increased consumption of gossypol causes increased
permeability of the yolk sac membrane which leads to excessive pigmentation of the
albumin, known as ‘pink disease’or white albumen which is mottled or gummy. It is
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necessary for producers to constantly update feeding standards and include new
recommendations to ensure the quantity and quality of food necessary to the layer ducks.
Egg factors
Eggs are normally fertile four days after the deposition of the semen inside the female,
and in this period all necessary components for the development of embryo until the birth
should be present in the egg. Under normal circumstances, infertility is due to different
factors related to the management of the broodstock and environmental conditions, since
these are related to modifications in the physical and chemical characteristics that reduce
embryonic development and hatching of good quality ducklings (Narushin and Romanov,
2002).
The management of broodstock plays an important role to ensure a good hatchability,
breed used, season, health, and nutrition, also size, weight and quality of egg, in addition
to the duration and storage conditions (Wilson, 1991; Onasanya et al., 2013). The quality
of eggs for incubation is determined by both external and internal characteristics,
however, there are other factors that prevent hatching, such as the inheritance of
lethal genes, lack of nutrients and sudden variations in incubation conditions
(King'ori, 2011).
EGG QUALITY
Egg quality has a significant effect on hatchability, as conditions of the
microenvironment during the storage process and early incubation modify both the
external and internal quality of eggs (Narushin and Romanov, 2002). External
characteristics such as weight, index form (described as maximum breadth to length
ratio), shell thickness, porosity, surface quality of the shell and resistance to breakage
have been measured (Toro et al., 2015). Internal quality is determined by the height of
the dense albumen and the yolk, in addition to Haugh Units. Haugh units are calculated
as:
HU=100 log (H+7.57−1.7W
0.37
)
where HU=Haugh units, H=albumin height and W=egg weight (Toro et al., 2015).
Heavier eggs are more likely to hatch than those of low weight; however, there are
contradictions about the weight of eggs that are not within the average values for
incubation (King'ori, 2011). An increase in weight, shell thickness and internal
contents of eggs leads to a higher total weight, which in turn reflects more reserves
of nutrients and energy (Toro et al., 2015). Light weight eggs have relatively shorter
incubation times (Weis et al., 2011) and the weight of hatchlings is higher from large
eggs. It is important to note that, during incubation, larger embryos produce a greater
amount of heat, which requires good ventilation to maintain the correct temperature
(Jibrin et al., 2011).
Likewise, egg size affects hatchability. Wilson (1991) and Weis et al. (2011) found that
medium-sized eggs from Muscovy ducks had better hatchability than small eggs. In this
sense Demirel and Kırıkçi (2009), found a greater increase in yolk compared to albumin
as the egg size increased, which could be a major influence.
With longer storage time, HU decreases and pH of the albumin increases, apparently
due to loss of water (Martínez et al., 2014). Elibol et al. (2002) stated that the low pH in
fresh eggs did not affect fertility and hatchability, however, other authors indicated the
opposite, and perhaps this difference may be due to different flock age (Benton and
Brake, 1994).
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EMBRYO SURVIVAL
According to Kuurman et al. (2003), mortality describes a curved, diphasic Weibull
distribution, due to the peaks of mortality in the first and last third of incubation. The
survival of the embryo does not only depend on environmental conditions before and
during incubation, factors related to the genotype of the dam and the sire, mainly the
dam, affects the survival of the duckling within the egg. Chromosomal aberrations and
lethal genes acquired from the sire and dam can cause high percentages of early
embryonic mortality (Liptoi and Hidas, 2006). The stage of development decreases
the heritability of the susceptibility to embryonic death, from 0.09 for early mortality
to 0.05 for late mortality, based on the parent component and from 0.25 to 0.18 based on
the dam component (Beaumont et al., 1997). In this sense, Bennewitz et al. (2007)
reported low direct heritability of hatchability, based on linear and threshold models
respectively, with hatching capacity treated as a trait of the dam.
EGG STORAGE
The microenvironment conditions during storage, storage time and position of the eggs
on the incubation tray are important to guarantee a profitable production of ducklings,
especially for production in the tropics and subtropics. To avoid the effect of heat stress
on the embryo during storage, temperature should be 13°C (55°F) and never higher than
24°C, and relative humidity should be less than 75% but higher than 40% (Buhr, 1995).
Eggs stored under refrigeration should be placed for 4 h at room temperature before
incubating (Onbaşılar et al., 2007). Onbaşılar et al. (2007) reported that hatchability was
lower and early embryonic death rate was the highest in eggs stored for 11 d. Saha et al.
(1992) reported that hatchability of Khaki Campbell duck eggs was greatest in eggs
stored for 3 d compared to 7 d pre-incubation.
It is advisable not to store eggs for more than two weeks, as hatchability decreases
significantly after 14 d. Researcher have shown that storage period is related to both early
and late embryonic deaths (Onbaşılar et al., 2007). The hatchability of total and fertile
eggs decreased with increasing storage period, since early and late embryonic death was
higher due to loss of water and degradation of albumin during storage.
However, the optimal storage period is not fixed. It varies according to the age of the
batch and the strain and species, due to the differences in the quality of the albumin.
Keeping eggs with the small end down and the large end upwards can result in more
successful hatching than when doing the opposite, perhaps because the incorrect
orientation of the head of the embryo towards the larger pole prevents correct
elimination of water. In this sense, Bauer et al. (1990) reported a 17% decrease in the
hatchability of embryos of broilers located with the small pole up. Apparently, this
happens because the embryo cannot find the air chamber that is located in the round
pole, especially at the end of incubation (Bauer et al., 1990).
Conclusions
Success of the duck sector at small or large scale depends on a regular supply of one-day-
old chicks. The production of ducklings is influenced by the fertility and hatchability of
the eggs, which are important economic factors representing the major components of
reproductive performance. Fertility and hatchability are most sensitive to the
environmental and genetic influences. There are many factors related to producers,
breeders and environmental conditions during incubation that can influence these
parameters, including managerial, nutritional and genetic factors as well as eggs
quality and incubator factors. There are different methods used to improve the
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hatchability percentage of waterfowl eggs - cooling and periodic spraying with water are
some of the most commonly used. Dipping eggs and in ovo injection with nutrients such
as ascorbic acid and vitamin E during the incubation period is one of the tools used to
improve hatchability percentage.
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