Life Sciences Commons^™

Physiology And Reproduction: Gross Appearance Of The Turkey Blastoderm At Oviposition, M. R. Bakst, S. K. Gupta, W. Potts, V. Akuffo

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The blastoderm (fertilized ovum) and unfertilized germinal disc (UGD) of fresh laid eggs and eggs stored prior to incubation exhibit subtle but definable morphological variations. Such variations may lead to difficulty when attempting to determine true flock fertility based on the appearance of the blastoderm/UGD. The objectives of this study were to define and categorize such morphological variations and to determine whether sperm influence the frequency distribution of the different categories. Eleven categories of blastoderms were defined based on the relative density and appearance of the area alba, area pellucida, area opaca, and the periblast. The majority of the blastoderms …