Análise microbiológica e física de ovos provenientes de aves livres de gaiola e de sistema convencional comercializados no município de Santa Maria/RS

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate and compare the bacteriological and physical quality of eggs marketed in the city of Santa Maria/Rio Grande do Sul, from hens raised cage-free and in conventional system, in order to verify whether these eggs have similar microbiological and physical quality, for this purpose 360 eggs were purchased, 180 eggs from cage-free hens and 180 eggs from hens raised in cages, these eggs were subjected to analysis of Salmonella spp., total and thermotolerant coliform analysis, Haugh unit, yolk index, yolk color, egg weight and shell thickness, after which the results were subjected to statistical analysis to assess whether there was significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) between the two groups analyzed and as results we obtained difference in relation to egg weight (55,58 g conventional and 62.75 g cagefree) and dry shell (6.01 and 6.39 g), color (5.83 and 11.14), height (2.99 and 3.47 mm) and yolk width (42.54 and 43.56 mm), albumen height (2.99 and 3.47 mm) and yolk index (0.282 and 0.296) and in relation to microbiological analyses we obtained 13.33% presence of Salmonella spp. in eggs from conventional breeding, against 6.66% of cage-free eggs and in the quantification of coliforms in conventional eggs we obtained 152.86 MPN of total coliforms and 80.14 of thermotolerant coliforms, and in cage-free eggs 0.44 MPN of total coliforms and 0 MPN of thermotolerant coliforms, showing a lower bacterial contamination and better physical quality of eggs from cagefree birds and marketed in the city.