EFFECT OF DIFFERENT INTENSITIES OF FLUORESCENT LIGHT ON THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF CHICK-EMBRYOS IN OVO

Artificial conditions of incubation light have been found to have prof ound effects on hatchability of chicken and turkey eggs. It has been s hown that illumination of eggs throughout the incubation period reduce s hatching time by approximately 20 h compared with dark incubation. E xperiments carried out in the present study using different intensitie s of fluorescent light for first 40 h of incubation in ovo indicate si gnificant acceleration of morphogenesis in chick embryos as determined by cell population analysis. The maximum acceleration of growth was o bserved at intensity range of 1500-3000 lux without any adverse effect s as compared with dark-incubated controls (p < 0.01).