Effectiveness of Duck Hatching Egg Sanitization with the Combination of Hydrogen Peroxide and Ultraviolet Light

Commercial duck hatching eggs have high microbial loads due to their highly soiled nature. Thus, duck hatching eggs are commonly washed in commercial settings. Previous studies with chicken eggs determined that hatching egg sanitization with a combination of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and ultraviolet (UV) light decreased the total microbial load on eggshells and improved hatchability. The objective of this study was to compare the use of the H2O2/UV advanced oxidation process (AOP) egg sanitization method to a conventional commercial egg washing method and evaluate eggshell microbial loads, hatchability, and duckling quality. Three trials were performed to compare 3 treatments: (1) untreated eggs, (2) eggs washed under commercial conditions, and (3) sanitized by the H2O2/UV AOP method. Ten eggs from each treatment were sampled to enumerate the total number of aerobic microorganisms on the surface of eggs. All other eggs were incubated and hatched with a reassignment of incubators and hatchers to different treatments within each trial. The average percent hatch of fertile for sanitized eggs (81.49%) was greater (P < 0.037) compared to the control (72.52%) and washed (76.67%) treatments. The average eggshell aerobic plate counts for control, washed, and sanitized treatments were 5.82, 2.27, and 2.31 log(10)cfu/egg, respectively. No differences were observed in duckling quality measures. The data collected in this study demonstrated that the H2O2/UV AOP as a duck hatching egg sanitization method can reduce microbial loads on eggshell surfaces and improve hatchability without negative impacts on duckling quality.