Eggs Physical Quality and Chicks Performance of Black Neck Ostrich in Sudan

Abstract

The study was carried out on Ostrich Nile Farm for breeding black neck Ostrich in Soba east Khartoum, Sudan from 5th February to 15th August 2018 to evaluate egg physical quality and chick performance. The experiment include 122 egg and 114 chick reared in semi close system. The results revealed that the average egg weight was 1307.25±11.59 g, egg length 42.55±0.12 cm, egg width 38.49±0.11cm, axes length 13.84±0.13cm, axes width 11.65±0.10cm, egg volume 984.92±28.03m3, shape index 90.47±0.16%, egg specific gravity 1.40±0.02, and egg surface 562.82±3.29 cm2. A significant correlation was obtained between external egg characteristics and chick’s hatched weight. The correlation coefficient vary between 0.34 – 1.0 (most of the coefficients are above 0.8. The chick's performance include the chick weight, feed intake, weight gain, feed convention ratio (FCR) and mortality rate from the 1st to the 3rd month of age. The average of body weight, was (2056.66g, 6565.08g and 14153g) and FCR was (1.4, 1.1 and 1.9), the mortality rate was (32%, 27% and 12%) for the 1st,2nd and 3rd month respectively.