Interactions of housing system, genotype and egg shell quality and their relationship to egg safety

The eggshell importance is related to its function to protect the egg components from the environmental and pathogenic challenges. The eggshell consist of two main parts; shell membranes and true shell that includes mammillary layer, palisade layer, vertical layer and cuticle. The eggshell properties including shell weight, percentage, thickness and strength are affected by many internal and external factors which genotype, age and housing systems are the most important. These factors might affect the eggshell quality individually or it can combined and have higher impact