Desempenho e qualidade de ovos de galinhas poedeiras criadas em gaiolas enriquecidas e ambiente controlado.

Abstract

The charges suggested by international law for the welfare of laying hens in relation to the current breeding system (battery cages), where there is an indication or replacement of these changes will bring a set of premises and handling of birds, aiming at adapting to new market requirements. Therefore the main objective of this study was to evaluate the performance and egg quality of laying hens reared in enriched cages and controlled environment. It was used six cages, supporting six birds each one (six repetitions) for bioclimatic conditions of 20°C, 26°C and 32°C and relative humidity averaging 60%. It was evaluated the performance parameters as: temperature and consumption of water and food, but also determined daily collection of eggs by hand. And evaluated parameters of egg quality: egg weight (PO), specific gravity (SG), Haugh unit (HU), shell thickness (EC), yolk index (GI) and also evaluated other parameters such as: percentage of constituents, visual quality by ovoscopy and peel strength. The conditions of ambient temperatures of 20 and 26°C resulted positive effect on the metabolism of poultry and had better performance and quality of eggs and most preference in the laying compared with a temperature of 32°C. Significant reduction (P < 0.01) occurred on egg quality of hens submitted in temperature of 32°C, which suffered more negative effects by thermal stress.