Hatching egg disinfection, as part of the quality assurance system, is a standard procedure in commercial hatcheries. Formaldehyde was and is broadly used but bears high risks for the personnel. In preliminary studies, the spray application of hydrogen peroxide was successfully tested and was chosen to compare its efficacy and impact on hatchability, as well as performance during fattening, and at slaughter, to formaldehyde under field conditions. The trial was set up with hatching eggs from two breeder flocks, running parallelly in three groups (H2O2, formaldehyde and non-disinfected control) at four different flock ages (at 38, 39, 56, 57 weeks). No significant differences were noticed in the hatchery, whereas in the rearing period higher 7-day- and total mortalities occurred during trials 1 and 2 in all non-disinfected groups and one formaldehyde-treated group, making an antibiotic treatment necessary. At slaughter, the findings in all groups were comparable. Trials 3 and 4 passed without significant differences between all groups, leading to the conclusion that hatching egg disinfection lowers the risk of infection-related losses. Meanwhile, formaldehyde fumigation and the spraying of hydrogen peroxide produced similar results in all stages.
