Non-destructive Characterization of Eggs Odor in Different Statuses of Fertilization by SPME/GC-MS coupled with Electronic nose.

BACKGROUND: Early and non-destructive identification of fertile (F) eggs is a difficult task in the breeding process of laying hens. The odors emitted from unfertilized (UF), infertile (IF) and F eggs were characterized by SPME/GC-MS and electronic nose (E-nose) to determine their differences by principal component, partial least squares and canonical discriminant analyses.

RESULTS: A total of 14 volatiles were identified in unhatched shell White Leghorn eggs, such as nonanal, decanal, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, 6,10-dimethyl-5,9-Undecadien-2-one, etc. Furthermore, cedrene and decanal greatly contributed to the classification of UF and fertilized (Fd)/IF eggs; cedrene, decanal, 1-octanol and hexanal greatly contributed to the distinction of UF and IF eggs; heptanal might be the potential marker to determine F/IF eggs. Additionally, P40/1, P10/2, P10/1, TA/2, T40/2 and T30/1, P30/1, P40/2, PA/2, T40/2 mostly contributed to the distinction of UF/Fd eggs and F/IF eggs, respectively. Moreover, the canonical discriminant analysis presented a superior differentiating efficiency for almost all groups, and the odor differences between UF and Fd eggs were significantly higher than F and IF eggs.

CONCLUSION: SPME/GC-MS combined with E-nose may have the potential to non-destructively discriminate the UF, F and IF eggs, which will provide us a new visual to understand the differences among them. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.