Method for preserving the viability of a chicken embryo with a shell defect in experiment

Abstract

The egg has always been and remains an ideal object for conducting various scientific research. An egg is an isolated egg cell outside the mother’s body. Therefore, it is an ideal object for studying embryogenesis and performing various manipulations during embryogenesis and before the birth of a viable organism. The existing methods allow conducting experimental manipulations with the embryo in situ, inside the egg shells without damaging them. However, the achievement of ideal parameters for closing the defect of the fertilized egg shell in the experiment is the key to the successful completion of the experiment. Periods of embryogenesis, especially at the last stage, when osteogenesis occurs, require the presence of a sufficient amount of calcium ions in the metabolism of the developing chicken, which are vital for the formation of a full-fledged chicken.The aim: to develop an optimal method for closing the defect and fixing the egg shell after manipulation or during the experiment.Materials and methods. The experiment was carried out on fertile eggs of the breed of chickens – meat breed of broilers Ross-308 (ROSS-308), JSC Poultry Farm “NovoBaryshevskaya” (Koltsovo, Novosibirsk Region, Russian Federation). In the experiment, 120 fertilized eggs were used. Eggs weighing 60–70 g were incubated at a temperature of 37.5–38.0 °C and 50–55 % humidity. Comparative anatomical and physiological parameters were evaluated on the 7th, 14th, 20th day of incubation and on the 1st day of the postnatal period. In the experimental group, the shell defect was covered with a fragment of the egg shell of the donor. Incubation was carried out in an incubator – a household incubator “Nesushka” (Novosibirsk, Russian Federation).Results. The proposed method of fixing and closing the defect of the fertilized egg shell excludes the use of foreign materials that have an adverse effect on the development of the embryo. There were no anatomical and physiological deviations in the chicks of the study group when comparing the indicators with the parameters in the comparison group and the Hamburger – Hamilton classification.

Keywords

• development of a chicken embryo
• eggshell defect
• embryogenesis
• method of closing an eggshell defect