Impact of Short Term Exposure of Japanese Quail Eggs to Magnetic Field on Eggshell Thickness, Hatchability and Body Weight at hatch

Two experiments with a total of 1260 Japanese Quail eggs were conducted to study the impact of short term exposure to magnetic field (MF) on eggshell thickness, hatchability and body weight at one-day of age (BW). In the first experiment, a pilot study to identify the best treatments to be tested in the second experiment, 360 eggs in 2 ways-ANOVA with interaction design were divided randomly into 15 equal groups (3 replicates of 8 eggs per each group). Eggs were exposed to 3 intensities of MF (0, 750 and 1500Gauss)and 5 durations of exposure (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 min) before incubation. Results indicated that, no significant effects of interaction between MF dose and duration of exposure was observed for eggshell thickness and BW at hatch. The highest hatchability rate was noted for treatment of 750 Gauss/20 min followed by 1500 Gauss/10 min ones. In addition, a linear effect was detected for BW in inconsiderable response to MF intensities (750Gauss). In the second experiment, one-way ANOVA was performed using 900 eggs. Eggs were divided randomly into 3 equal treatments (0, 750 Gauss/20 min and 1500 Gauss/10 min) with 10replicates per each treatment (30 eggs per replicate). Results confirmed that both treatments (750Gauss/20 min and 1500 Gauss/10 min) had the same positive impact on hatchability and BW at hatch in compared with control ones. It might be concluded from this study that MF had no effect on eggshell thickness. However, it had positive impacts on hatchability and BW at hatch of Japanese quail. Therefore, it is recommended for breeders to implement in their hatcheries the most effective and efficient treatment, which is either 750 Gauss/20 min or 1500 Gauss/10min.