Abstract

Oxygen(O2) consumption and carbon dioxide(CO2) excretion of a fertile chicken egg during incubation were measured by a gas mass spectrometer. A closed sample chamber was developed to collect gas samples during the 20 days of artificial incubation of both a fertile and an infertile egg. After leaving an egg in the sample chamber for an hour, using a gas-tight syringe, samples of 2 mL of gas were collected from the closed sample chamber and analyzed using a gas mass spectrometer in 2~4 day intervals. The O2 consumption and CO2 excretion of chicken embryos increased rapidly after 10 days from the starting point of incubation. After 20 days, 23 mL of O2 was consumed and 16 mL of CO2 was excreted per hour. Throughout the whole period of incubation, concentration of O2 decreased 4.3 mol% and CO2 increased only 3.1 mole%, i.e., the mole of consumed O2 and the mole of excreted CO2 were not the same. On the other hand, during the same period,concentration of N2 increased about 1.3 mol% and the increased mole fraction of N2 was comparable with the difference (1.2 mol%) between the mole fraction of consumed O2 and excreted CO2. Therefore, we can attribute the increase of N2 mole% to the difference of mole fraction between consumed O2 and excreted CO2. In this study, through the analysis of gas, we could explain the respiration of a fertile chicken egg during incubation.