220 ORIGINAL ARTICLE COMPARISON OF EGG QUALITY TRAITS IN DIFFERENT POULTRY SPECIES AND BREEDS Orville L. Bondoc, PhD 1* , Aldrin O. Ebron, BS Agr 1 , Ana Rose Ramos, BS ChAg Chem 1 , and Rene C. Santiago, DVM, MSc 2 1 Institute of Animal Science (IAS), College of Agriculture and Food Science (CAFS), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), College, Laguna 4031, Philippines, 2 National Swine and Poultry Research and Development Center (NSPRDC), Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), Department of Agriculture (DA), Lagalag, Tiaong, Quezon 4325, Philippines ABSTRACT Using 815 eggs randomly collected from 29 breeds of chickens, mallard, Muscovy, quails, guinea fowl, turkey, and ostrich, this study compared internal and external egg quality traits between poultry species and between breeds within species. Among poultry species used for commercial egg production, the mallard ducks had significantly (P<0.05) the highest weight of egg, yolk, albumen, and shell, shell thickness, short, and long circumference which is followed by chickens and quails. Both quail and mallard eggs have higher yolk-albumen ratio than chicken eggs. Chicken egg yolks are more deeply hued than quail and mallard. Both mallard and chicken eggs were more elongated (less round) than quail eggs. Philippine native chickens (Banabang Kalabaw, Joloano, Paraoakan, and Palawan-lasak) have significantly (P<0.05) lower egg weight, albumen weight, short, and long circumference than commercial egg-type and dual-purpose breeds. Percent yolk, percent albumen, yolk-albumen ratio, yolk color, albumen height, Haugh unit, and external egg quality traits were significantly different (P<0.05) among the native breeds. Itik-Pinas (IP) mallard breeds (IP-Itim, IP-Khaki, and Kayumanggi-IP) were significantly different (P<0.05) for yolk weight, percent yolk, percent albumen, yolk-albumen ratio, yolk color, albumen height, Haugh unit, shell weight, percent shell, shell thickness, and short circumference. Quail and turkey eggs showed significant breed differences (P<0.05) for percent yolk, percent albumen and yolk-albumen ratio. Key Words: Egg quality, chickens, mallard, Muscovy, quails, guinea fowl, turkey, ostrich Philipp. J. Vet. Med., 57(2): 220-235, 2020 INTRODUCTION Bird eggs have been valuable food products in the human diet since prehistory, in both hunting societies and more recent cultures where birds were domesticated. In the Philippines, the commonly used eggs are those from chickens, ducks, and quails. Eggs from guinea fowl, turkey, and ostrich and even native chickens are also available representing a niche market but limited due to their primary use in the production of hatching eggs. Their low productivity of less than 200 eggs per laying hen also makes it unprofitable to cover their cost of commercial production. Eggs especially from chickens have been modified and continuously enhanced by genetic selection to satisfy the requirements of consumers and a food industry which uses egg albumen and yolk for many purposes. Improvement of productivity and efficiency of laying hens by commercial breeding companies that use a combination of cross line and pure line information are also recommended to take place in other poultry species (Tixier-Boichard et al., 2012). *FOR CORRESPONDENCE: (e-mail: olbondoc@up.edu.ph