Gene Tech Spares Male Chicks from Cull by Preventing Them from Hatching
16:31 JST, August 2, 2023
REHOVOT, Israel (Reuters) — Every year, egg farmers kill 7 billion day-old male chicks because they cannot grow up to lay eggs and are the wrong breed for meat. A laboratory in Israel has a solution: What if the male eggs don’t hatch?
All the chicks are female at Yuval Cinnamon’s laboratory in central Israel, where new technology offers an answer to what he calls “the most devastating animal welfare issue worldwide — the culling and sorting of day-old male chicks.”
Day-old male chicks are normally “either macerated or suffocated or electrified. In some countries they do not even bother to cull their males properly,” explained Cinnamon, principal investigator at Israel’s Volcani Institute, which works to attain food security and food safety.
Cinnamon said that his team has generated a sex-linked genetic trait that stops the development of male embryos shortly after eggs are laid.
“We take these eggs and activate the genetic trait using blue-light illumination, which immediately causes the males to stop developing. The females don’t carry the trait and are entirely non-genetically modified, as are the table eggs they lay,” explained Cinnamon.
The unhatched male eggs can be used for other purposes such as animal feed.
Yaarit Wainberg, CEO of Poultry by Huminn, which is licensed to commercialize the research, wants to bring the technology to hatcheries worldwide.
“We are in advanced talks with layer genetics companies and can see our solution on the market within two years. It will solve a major problem for the industry.”
"Science & Nature" POPULAR ARTICLE
-
Govt, U.S. Sign Deal to Send 2 Japanese Astronauts to the Moon; Toyota to Contribute to Artemis Program with Lunar Cruiser
-
Gigantic Ichthyosaur’s Fossils Found by British Girl, Father
-
Jellyfish Invade Venezuelan Waters, Worrying Fishermen
-
Fossils of Colossal Snake Vasuki Unearthed in India
-
Fossil of 16-million-year-old River Dolphin Found in Peru
JN ACCESS RANKING
- China Mutes Memorialization of Reformer Hu Yaobang; Memories Could Spark Critique of Xi Administration
- Shinkansen Services Suspended After Man ‘Searches for Phone’ on Tracks; Disruption Affects About 14,000 Passengers
- U.S. 7th Fleet officer Arrested on Suspicion of Stealing Sushi, Sashimi, Chicken at Kanagawa Shopping Mall; Suspect Caught Mid-Meal
- UNRWA Director Describes Catastrophic Destruction in Gaza; Says Relief Trucks Robbed, ‘People’s Hearts Destroyed’
- JAL Airplane Experiences Radio Malfunction During Flight, Lands Safely By Relying on Light Signals