Internal quality of the egg - Influence of the keeping system

The young hens, mature for laying were brought in 3 different keeping systems (floor keeping with room to run about, intense floor keeping without run about and intense keeping in cage); thereby the internal egg quality was recorded in 3 subsequent laying periods (n=1440). Following features were investigated: egg weight (with shell), chemical composition of the entire egg content without shell (water, ash, fat, protein, amino acids, minerals), as well as colour and vitamin A in the yolk. The investigations led to following results: The eggs from cage keeping showed a tendency to higher content on vitamin A, as well as a more intense colour of the yolk. The amino acids and the mineral content were not influenced by the keeping systems. An exception formed the iron content of the entire egg from the cage keeping. The egg plays a significant role in the human nutrition, whereby the keeping system had no influence on the internal egg quality according to these extensive investigations.