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Crucial for chick and egg qualtiy is the amount of contamination that is present in the pores of the egg. This contamination occurs directly after lay, when the egg is cooling down, and cannot be easiliy removed.

The usual method for checking egg hygiene is based on swabbing the egg surface, but this is not sufficient to determine the amount of contamination in the egg shell pores.

The amount of contamination in the pores can be measured by the "shell rinse method"

Place an egg with sterile gloves in a sterile plastic bag

add soldium chloride solution (0,9% physiological NaCl) of 37-38oC

shake the content for approximately 1 minute

put 1 ml on a Plate Count Agar and incubate for 24 hours (37oC

count the colonies