From this Wednesday, June 1, chick farmers must prove that they have started installing machines to detect the sex of unborn chicks through the eggshell. They have until the end of the year to complete the work..
The objective is to end the grinding of chicks by the end of 2022 because until now 50 million male chicks were eliminated each year, after their birth. Eliminated because in egg production chains, you need hens, laying hens, therefore only females. “It’s an additional cost of 46 million euros per year for the sector”recalls Maxime Chaumet, secretary general of the national committee for egg production “but the professionals are on track to meet the schedule.”
There are several techniques for detect the sex of the chick through the shell :
either we take the equivalent of the amniotic fluid in the egg, to measure the hormones or the metabolites, but this is not the preferred method, because you have to make a small hole in the shell, which weakens the egg. Either we use more sophisticated machines, which keep the shell intact and in this case it is
either an analysis by MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or a light beam capable of detecting, from the 13th day, the differences in the start of coloring of the feathers, which make it possible to distinguish males from females. It is this AAT technology, called hyperspectral light, which is mainly chosen in France, for reasons of reliability.
It is not possible to keep males for meat and females to lay eggs. On paper, this seems to be the most logical solution and this is an argument often put forward by associations for the defense of animal welfare.
Scientists are studying this possibility, but for that it would be necessary to create a new strain of hen allowing both the production of quality eggs by the females, and the production of quality meat by the males.
However, today, there is no mixed chicken strain that does not allow you to have both at the same time. It’s either meat or eggs, explains Joël Gautron, research director at the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae). This possibility therefore remains open, but it is not possible in the current state of research.