Together with our partners, we are delivering humane, animal-friendly solutions that are changing the game for poultry production. Gender identification in the hatching egg is a major ethical improvement as male chicks no longer have to be killed the moment they’re born.
At HatchTech, our mission is to use technology and solutions to improve poultry production by driving animal welfare and productivity, together with partners and supermarkets, we have developed revolutionary new techniques to determining the sex of an embryo in a hatching egg.
How does it work? First, a laser makes a small hole in the eggshell. A microscopic amount of embryo-urine is then removed through the hole in a non-invasive way so that nothing enters the egg. This minimises the risk of cross-contamination and ensures the embryo is left untouched and unharmed. A technique similar to a pregnancy test analyses the fluid to determine whether the egg will be a female or male. The unhatched male eggs are then removed and turned into feed.
This is a huge step forward for the industry: half of the hatching eggs in the setter can be removed after the first nine days of incubation – delivering excellent energy and space savings. Key hatchery work processes are also simplified and become more efficient, as male chicks no longer need to be removed from the hatchery at birth. Right now, supermarkets in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Swiss are selling the world’s first ‘no-kill’ eggs. We expect other countries to soon follow their lead – watch this space!
