Essential oils as sanitisers for hatching eggs

SUMMARY

Sanitising hatching eggs can reduce the negative effects of microorganisms on bird survival. Formaldehyde gas is commonly used to sanitise hatching eggs. However, handling of and exposure to formaldehyde threaten human and animal health, as this compound can have serious harmful effects. Thus, there is a growing body of research on safe natural compounds, such as essential oils (EOs), as alternatives to formaldehyde. Based on the research carried out to date, EOs may be applicable in the poultry industry since eggs sanitised with EOs were found to have significant reductions in the number of total aerobic mesophilic bacteria (up to 80.77%) and fungi (up to 69.33%) on shells, with hatchability rates significantly improved by up to 12.59%. Notably, to obtain positive results from the application of EOs on eggs, several factors must be considered, such as the time of application and the concentration of the sanitising compound. Further research on the use of EOs as sanitisers for hatching eggs is recommended, as reducing use of synthetic chemicals is essential because of their undesirable effects.

KEYWORDS:

• Eggshell
• essential oils
• hatching eggs
• hatchability
• microbial count
• production poultry
• sanitisers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).