Technology to determine the sex of chicken eggs before incubation

Canadian scientists have developed a technology to detect the sex of chicken eggs before they are incubated, reducing costs for the poultry industry that only needs hens to lay eggs.

Illustration

This new technique is similar to the method of determining whether eggs are fertilized before being placed in an incubator currently used by hatcheries.

Professor Michael Ngadi of McGill University said the difference is that this new technology uses optical imaging techniques that allow the eggs to be seen under different colors of light. Accordingly, when viewed through the eggshell under infrared light, male and female embryos have different distributions of cells.

With the support of the Ontario Egg Producers Association, researchers at McGill University are advancing the technique, with a yield of 3,000-6,000 eggs per hour. Unselected breeding eggs are marketed as commercial eggs, rather than being incubated.

This technology is considered the most effective and sustainable solution to end the situation of millions of male chicks being killed immediately after leaving the incubator. This invention is being welcomed not only by Canadian egg producers, but also in the US, Europe and especially by animal protection organizations.

Previously, animal protection organizations and scientific associations have sought new technological solutions to join hands to end the reality of hundreds of millions of male chicks dying each year in the industrial farming process.

It is estimated that up to 50 million male chicks are killed in the French poultry industry each year, a similar number in Germany, and twice as many in the US.

Previously, there were technologies to test the gender of chicken eggs, but these methods could only be performed after the eggs had been incubated and were wasteful because rejected eggs were still destroyed and could not be sold on the market./.

According to Vietnam+