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| Monochromatic green light-emitting diodes (LED) light stimulation influences the growth performance of chicks posthatch. This study was undertaken with the following objectives: (1) to examine whether the green LED light stimulation induces overheating effect by determining weight loss rate of fertile eggs during incubation period; (2) to look for the eye health and organ development at different ages of embryos and newly hatched chicks. Arbor Acres fertile broiler eggs (n=480) were randomly assigned to 3 incubation groups and exposed to continuous white light, green light, or a dark environment (control) from day 1 to day 19 of incubation. The light sourced from LED lamps with the intensity of 30 lx at eggshell level. The results showed that either green or white light stimuli during embryogenesis did not significantly affect the weight loss rate of fertile egg, hatching time, hatchability, chick embryo or body weight, the weight percentage of heart, liver and eyes, as well as obvious systematic abnormalities in eye weight, side-to-side, back-to-front or corneal diameter from 15 d of embryogenesis to 6 d of posthatch (P > 0.05). Compared with the dark condition, green light stimuli during embryogenesis tended to increase feed intake (P = 0.080), improved the BW gain of birds during 0-6 day posthatch (P < 0.05), and increased the percentage of pectoral muscle to the BW on 3- and 6-day-old birds. In addition, embryos or chicks in green light had lower weight percentage of yolk retention on 19 d of embryogenesis and 1 d of posthatch in comparison to those in dark or white group (P < 0.05). These results suggest providing green LED light during incubation has no detrimental effect on eye health and organ development, but does have potential benefits in terms of enhanced the posthatch growth of broilers. This growth-promoting effect of green light stimulation was not caused by overheating. |
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| Keywords:chick embryo, LED light, organ development |
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