The effect of static magnetic field during incubation on hatchability, bone status and blood biochemical parameters in day-old chicks of Hay-Line W-36 variety

The effects of static magnetic field on tibia measurements, blood parameters and performance of day-old Hay-Line W-36 were investigated.A total of 180 fresh fertilized egg weighed and randomly assigned to 6 treatments namely, without and 5 static magnetic fields of 4, 5, 6, 7.5 and 10 μT (micro tesla) density. For implementation of treatments, magnets with dimensions of 0.36­3636 cm and 4000 μT density (40 G) were used. Treatments were implemented on 5, 7, 9, 11 and 15 days of incubation. Each egg was as a replicateunder complete randomized design. After hatching and weighting, 15 day-old birds were slathered from each treatment. Tibiae bone for characteristics and mechanical properties were separated. Tissue slices were prepared and width of epiphyseal plate in proximal and distal epiphysis were measured by motic software. In this study, in spite of similar weight of eggs (p>0.05), weight of day-old chicks in 10 μT treatment was significantly lower (p<0.05) than the control and 6 μT treatments. The percentage of hatchability and mortality were not affected by all treatments (p>0.05), but with the exception of 4 μT treatment, hatchability of the other treatments were marginally higher (p>0.05) than the control. The length of tibiae bone of 6 μT treatment was significantly increased (p<0.05), nonetheless, no significant difference was observed in bone density and mechanical strength parameters. The results of this study show that 6 μT treatment caused to improvement in hatching weight, increasing of epiphyseal plate and tibiae length.