In-ovo sexing
The first invasive technology to be successfully commercially introduced for poultry farming was bio-market detection through the Dutch–German company Seleggt in November 2018.
[1] Meanwhile, the non-invasive in-ovo sexing technologies have been introduced to the market by the German start-up Orbem and AAT, a subsidiary of the EW Group.
[2][3] In-ovo gender determination has the potential to bring an end to the killing of billions of male chicks.
More animal friendly because the day-old male chicks no longer need to be culled, and more sustainable because less energy is used because only the female eggs need to be further incubated after sexing.
The poultry sector has been working on this for years in order to be able to phase out chick culling in the interest of animal welfare.
The researched procedure, later called bio-marker detection, used a hormonal test for the allantoic fluid of brown layers’ eggs.
[25] From 8 November 2018, consumption eggs that are laid by the hens that have been sexed with the Seleggt method are to be found on the shelves of the German supermarket REWE, in the Berlin region.
The main drawbacks of invasive procedures is that they may affect the eggs’ hatchability [19] and that the process implies a risk for bacterial infection.
[33] On the other hand, optical technologies, have a contactless in-ovo sexing procedure (e.g.y, spectroscopy, AI-powered imaging) are free of this previous risks.
The Dutch–German company Respeggt measures a substance that is a 'biomarker' for the sex through a small hole in the eggshell on day 9 after fertilisation.
[34] The German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) has invested 5 million euros in the development of the Respeggt technology.
This company was founded in 2013 by students Wouter Bruins (biology) and Wil Stutterheim (biomedical sciences) and, just like Seleggt, uses a small amount of liquid from the hatching egg and determines whether it is a male or female hatching egg by means of biomarker detection on the 9th day.
[35] The German company Plantegg uses a PCR method, which uses DNA to determine whether the hatching egg is male or female.
[34] The French company Tronico, based in La Roche-sur-Yon, collaborates with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) on Projet Soo, which employs a mix of spectroscopy and the use of biosensors with the target of achieving 90% accuracy in ovo sexing at 9 days of incubation by the end of 2019.
In 2017, French Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll granted Projet Soo 4.3 million euros to finance its egg sexing research.
[41] In 2018, Canadian Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay announced an $844,000 investment in the research project to stimulate its development.
[42] Based on years of scientific research at the interface of AI, imaging technology and embryonic poultry development, Orbem was founded in 2019 as a spin-off from the Technical University of Munich.
[43] Orbem uses AI-powered MRI to conduct in-ovo sexing on day 11 - 12 of incubation, with a throughput of up to 24,000 eggs per hour.
