Hatchery sanitation and
chick mortality
HATCHERY
Sanitation in the hatchery
influences the hatchability
of eggs and subsequent quality
of the chicks hatched. By
following basic sanitation
and hygiene practices, even
hatcheries with limited access
to sanitation products and
technology can significantly
reduce chick losses.
By Dr. A.A. Qureshi, Pakistan
A
ttaining high chick quality brings
many factors into play. Aside from the
environmental parameters of temper-
ature, relative humidity, turning and gas
concentrations, hatchery sanitation and hy-
giene play an important role in attaining
high chick quality. Small differences in tem-
perature during incubation can produce a
large change in hatchability and thus rela-
tive humidity has a role. Turning eggs dur-
ing incubation has again a definite effect on
livability whilst gas exchange (oxygen & car-
bon dioxide) imbalance reduces hatchabili-
ty with a subsequently lower chick quality.
A 57g egg requires five litres of oxygen to at-
tain embryonic maturity while at the same
time it evolves three litres of carbon diox-
ide. Normal fresh air contains 0.03% carbon
dioxide but for normal chick development
0.1 to 0.45% carbon dioxide is required in
the incubators and 0.5% in the hatcheries.
Hatchability is markedly reduced if it is in-
creased to 1%. Hatchability is also related to
egg size and various other factors including
feed & nutrition but as general rule small
eggs hatch earlier whereas larger eggs take
longer with an increasing possibility of de-
hydrated chicks.
Sanitation - the basics
Hatchery sanitation starts on the farm,
since dirty contaminated eggs coming to
the hatchery can easily cause hygienic con-
ditions inside to deteriorate. Entry of dirty
eggs into the hatchery leads to increased
candling waste through heavy embryonic or
chick mortality, because of bacterial pene-
tration into the egg shell leading to a lower
hatchability and poor quality chicks. In
such cases commercial farms usually report
increased early chick mortality during the
first week of brooding. However, nest hy-
giene, egg packing and fumigation at farm
level can help in reducing such situations.
24
Chick quality is greatly influenced by the standards of hygiene and sanitation in the
incubator environment.
Under poor hygienic incubation conditions,
the egg yolk sac is easily infected with a
number of bacteria and chicks often hatch
in a devitalised state with increased watery
yolk and consequent multiplication of
Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus,
Clostridium sporogenes, Clostridium
welchii, Escheresia coli and Psedomonas
spp., which often cause chick mortality dur-
ing the three days post hatch. Moreover,
such contamination can easily spread to
other sections of the hatchery through
build-up of contaminated fluff, which can
be spread by mechanical carriers or even
circulating air.
Hatchery ventilation systems are almost
non-existent in many developing countries,
though at least eight air changes per hour
are recommended for both setters and
hatchers, which can be monitored by
checking carbon dioxide levels in the ma-
chines. In fact, hatchery ventilation is re-
quired to provide sufficient oxygen to the
embryos and to remove products of respira-
tion. It also helps in maintaining positive
airflow through the hatchery from the egg
store to the chick dispatch room. In addi-
tion it should prevent backtracking of all
contaminated fluff to reduce any possibility
of recycling of the infection inside the
hatchery operation. It has been found
through years of research that at least 20%
of hatching eggs are wasted during incuba-
tion, mainly due to infertility and embryon-
ic death, leading to an overall average
hatchability of 80% under such conditions.
It is also found that 15% to 20% of un-
hatched eggs show bacterial contamina-
tion, while during summer months it leads
to the so called “exploding” eggs from
Mycoplasma-infected flocks that are often
found piped and dead in the shell.
Small, weak, thin chicks with poor body
weight are considered as “poor quality
chicks”, and these usually have a higher
mortality during the brooding stage at the
farm, which under normal conditions
should not exceed 2% to 3% whereas in de-
veloping countries average broilers mortali-
ty for 49 days is considered to be 10-12% in-
cluding “starve-outs”. Weak chicks usually
result from dehydration during and after
hatching as nearly 50% of chicks are
hatched 9-15 hours after the first chick is
hatched and all remain inside the hatchery
until final pull out.
Bacteria - the enemy within
and without
Bacterial and fungal infections in the hatch-
ery are first indicated by early deaths within
the first seven days of chick life. Such infec-
tions are commonly brought in from the
farm where nesting box sanitation should
be looked into, as dirty eggs carry a heavy
load of micro-organisms. Floor eggs always
have lower hatchability and poorer quality
chicks. Inside the hatchery the most critical
WORLD POULTRY - Elsevier Volume 18, No 3. '02
 Table 1. Grading of hatchery equipment and air by total
bacterial count (TBC)

Grading Bacterial colony count Mould count

Machines Rooms
Excellent 0 - 10 0 - 15 0
Good 11 - 25 16 - 36 01 to 03
Average 26 - 46 37 - 57 04 - 06
Poor 47 - 66 58 - 76 07 - 10
Bad 67 - 86 77 - 96 10 - 12
Miserable ≥87 ≥97 ≥13

Table 2. Qualitative grading of hatchery fluff

by quantitative bacterial count

Grading Total bacterial count/g

Excellent < 75,000
Good “ 150,000
Fair “ 300,000
Chick quality is usually seen in the uniformity and high hatchability of the incubated eggs. Poor “ 500,000
Bad > 500,000

Figure 1. Average weekly mortality of A and B grade chicks

pipes with worn galvanised coatings and
3.5
high iron content. Many hatchereymen in
B GRADE CHICKS developing countries come across the prob-
3 lem of “exploders” particularly during the
summer months, which is caused by the
2.5 presence of Pseudomonas in water or in-
WEEKLY MORTALITY

side the eggs. The putrefied egg contents

2 are spread over an area of almost one me-
1.5
1
0.5
0 is reduced to 50,000-100,000 by the 4th day
1 2
areas from a hygiene and sanitation point
of view, would therefore require a proper
disinfectant or a fumigant. Hatchery sanita-
tion and hygiene monitoring requires labo-
ratory testing to measure the level of bacte-
rial and fungal contamination. Hatching
eggs, chick fluff and dead embryos are
checked to see the effectiveness of terminal
fumigation with formalin, while hatchery
building walls, floors, tables and trays are
checked by swabbing at regular intervals of
at least two weeks. Air inlets for both setters
and hatchers are checked by the settle plate
method while hatcher trays, buggies and
sexing tables, etc. are checked both by swab
or contact plates for further bacteriological
results. The water supply to the hatchery is
also checked for its total bacterial count
(TBC), coliform count and total dissolved
salts (TDS) which gives a measure of water
hardness.
Amongst the most common bacterial dis-
eases in any hatchery having problems of
low quality hatch and chicks, microbes like
Salmonella, E. coli, Pseudomonas,
Stapylococci and Mycoplasma may be re-
sponsible but Aspergillosis is another com-
A GRADE CHICKS
3 4 5 6 7 but on the 8th day of incubation their num-
AGE IN WEEKS
mon fungal infection, causing
gasping/laboured respiration of chicks in
the chick trays. Pseudomonas aeroginosa,
Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas
putida and Pseudomonas maltophilia are
the most common contaminants in a
hatchery, which have been found to be re-
sistant to many common antibiotics and
disinfectants. Consequently much care is
required in selecting a disinfectant. Some
viral infections like Newcastle disease,
Infectious bronchitis, Encephalomyelitis,
Infectious laryngeotracheatis and Egg Drop
Syndrome often lead to poor hatch and
poor quality of chicks.
Bacteriological examination of the water
supply to the hatchery for incubation
equipment and washing purposes should
meet the standard of drinking water for hu-
man consumption with a zero coliform
count and a minimum range of TBC. Where
local chlorination of water at 5ppm is car-
ried out, TBC would never increase beyond
200-300 per ml of water. However
Pseudomonas can survive and multiply un-
der a wide variety of conditions, particular-
ly in water storage tanks and old water
tre, spoiling other eggs/embryos and conse-
quently contaminating the whole hatch
from setters to hatchers.
It is interesting to note that hatching eggs
at zero day of incubation carry a total bac-
terial count (TBC) of 350,000 to 450,000 that
ber once again goes up to 300,000 to
350,000. However, during the final stage of
incubation, on the 15th and 18th days the
TBC has been recorded to be 45,000 to
60,000 and 13,500 to 15,500 respectively,
though much depends upon hygiene, sani-
tation and fumigation at farm and hatchery
level.
The bacterial colony count of air samples
for setters, hatchers and rooms is common-
ly scored as shown in Table 1, to check the
standard of hygiene. Similarly the qualita-
tive and quantitative bacterial counts of
hatchery fluff are scored according to the
number of organisms present per gram of
fluff sample collected, before the hatch is
pulled out and is often scored as shown in
Table 2.
Presently formalin is the most commonly
used egg fumigant in developing countries
as it is the cheapest and most easily avail-
able, but during the last few years other fu-
migants and disinfectants have been made
to the hatchery and farm. Good chick quali-
ty is equally related to a good disinfection
and fumigation. Poor quality chicks cause
an enormous economic loss to the farmer,
which can be avoided by improving hatch-
ery conditions and incubation situations. □

WORLD POULTRY - Elsevier Volume 18, No 3. '02 25