Abstract

A study was carried out to determine the influence of the feather genotype, storage duration, temperature and method on the internal and external qualities of chicken table eggs. A total of 864 table eggs collected from naked neck (Nanaff), frizzle (nanaFf) and normal feathered (nanaff) birds were used in the study. A Completely Randomized Design of four factors namely, feather genotypes, storage temperatures (5ºC and 26ºC), storage duration (0, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days) and storage methods (with or without vegetable oil application) was used. The GLM procedure of GenStat (17th Edition) was used to determine the effects of the four factors and their interactions on external qualities (egg weight, length, and width, shell weight and thickness) and internal qualities (albumen height and weight, yolk height, weight, diameter and colour and Haugh unit) of table eggs. The effect of chicken genotype on proximate composition and nutritional values of table eggs were also determined. Feather genotype had significant (P<0.05) effect on yolk colour and weight whilst storage duration, temperature and method had significant (P<0.05) effects on all the internal qualities of eggs studied except effect of storage duration on yolk colour. The 2-way and 3-way interactions of the factors studied were important sources of variation for many of the internal qualities of eggs studied. With the exception of storage temperature, the other factors studied had significant (P<0.05) effects on many of the external qualities of eggs. The interactions of the factors were not significant (P>0.05) sources of variation for most of the external qualities of eggs. Mutant feather genes (Na and F) positively influence egg qualities which could be utilised to segment the commercial chicken egg market. © The Author(s) 2025