Culture of chicken embryos in surrogate eggshells

The chick embryo is a classical model to study embryonic development. However, most researchers have not studied the effect of embryonic manipulation on chick hatchability. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of egg orientation and type of sealing film on the hatchability of cultured embryos. Windows were made in the small end of recipient surrogate chicken eggshells, and donor embryos were placed into the recipient eggshell for the first 3 d of incubation. Survival over the first 3 d was maximized (P < 0.05) when windowed eggs sealed with Saran Wrap were positioned with the window-end down compared with window-end up. Three-day-old cultured embryos were transferred into recipient turkey eggshells, sealed with cling film, and cultured until hatch. Water weight loss of the surrogate eggshell cultures regardless of cling film type was not significantly different from control intact eggs. The embryos cultured in turkey eggshells and sealed with Handi Wrap exhibited higher hatchability (75% +/- 10.2%) than cultures sealed with Saran Wrap (45.2% +/- 13.8%). Hatchability of control intact eggs (86.4% +/- 5.3%) was not significantly (P > 0.05) different from the hatchability of eggs sealed with Handi Wrap, which suggested that Handi Wrap was an excellent sealant for chick embryos cultured after 3 d of incubation.