German scientists pioneer method to determine chicks’ gender before they hatch - removing need to slaughter billions of males
- An estimated 4 to 6 billion male chicks are slaughtered globally every year because they serve no economic purpose
- Some are suffocated, others are fed alive into grinding or shredding machines to be processed into reptile food
The world’s first no-kill eggs are now on sale in Berlin after German scientists found an easy way to determine a chick’s gender before it hatches, in a breakthrough that could put an end to the annual live shredding of billions of male chicks worldwide.
The “Seleggt” process can determine the sex of a chick just nine days after an egg has been fertilised. Male eggs are processed into animal feed, leaving only female chicks to hatch at the end of a 21-day incubation period.
“If you can determine the sex of a hatching egg you can entirely dispense with the culling of live male chicks,” said Seleggt managing director Ludger Breloh, who spearheaded the four-year programme by German supermarket Rewe Group to make its own brand of eggs more sustainable.
“It’s not about winning or losing,” he said of the worldwide race to find a marketable solution. “We all have the same goal, which is to end the culling of chicks in the supply chain. Of course, there’s competition, but it’s positive in that it keeps us all focused on that goal.”
An estimated 4 to 6 billion male chicks are slaughtered globally every year because they serve no economic purpose. Some are suffocated, others are fed alive into grinding or shredding machines to be processed into reptile food.