Measuring the conductance of eggshells using the acoustic resonance technique and optical transmission spectra

During the incubation of an avian egg, water vapour, oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged through the porous shell of the incubated egg. Due to the high variability of the eggshell conductance (G), large variation in exchange rates are present and hence a significant number of eggs are incubated in suboptimal conditions for humidity and partial pressures of carbon dioxide. Because there is no reliable technique to measure G in a non-destructive and fast way, the direct adaptation of the ambient conditions during incubation in relation to the G of the incubated eggs is not yet possible and this has repercussions on both the hatchability and chick quality. In the present research, two non-destructive and fast techniques, the Acoustic Resonance Technique (ART) and the measurement of light transmission through the egg, are used to estimate G. It was found that the dynamic stiffness of the egg (k(dyn)) and the optical transmission at 611 nm are the parameters with the highest predictive power when estimating G. Although this model is highly significant (P < 0.0001), the R-value for the best model is only moderate (R = 0.67). This indicates that there are still other parameters involved in the eggshell conductance that are not measurable by the ART and transmission of light. However, with the presented combination of non-destructive techniques, different classes of eggs based on their shell conductance could be created and incubated separately. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.