Abstract
In order to provide an alternative to day-old chick culling in the layer hatcheries, a noninvasive method for egg sexing is required at an early stage of incubation before onset of embryo sensitivity. Fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy of blood offers the potential for precise and contactless in ovo sex determination of the domestic chicken (Gallus gallus f. dom.) eggs already during the fourth incubation day. However, such kind of optical spectroscopy requires a window in the egg shell, is thus invasive to the embryo and leads to decreased hatching rates. Here, we show that near infrared Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy can be performed on perfused extraembryonic vessels while leaving the inner egg shell membrane intact. Sparing the shell membrane makes the measurement minimally invasive, so that the sexing procedure does not affect hatching rates. We analyze the effect of the membrane above the vessels on fluorescence signal intensity and on Raman spectrum of blood, and propose a correction method to compensate for it. After compensation, we attain a correct sexing rate above 90% by applying supervised classification of spectra. Therefore, this approach offers the best premises towards practical deployment in the hatcheries.
Highlights
The increasing specialization of chicken lines for either egg production or meat yield performance has made the male layers worthless, so that the freshly hatched cockerels are immediately eliminated
We recently demonstrated that near infrared fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy performed during the fourth day of incubation provides precise in ovo sexing based on differences in the composition of embryonic blood [12,13]
We show that in ovo sexing by optical spectroscopy can be performed without removing the inner shell membrane, avoiding negative effects on hatching rates
Summary
The increasing specialization of chicken lines for either egg production or meat yield performance has made the male layers worthless, so that the freshly hatched cockerels are immediately eliminated. Several approaches of chicken egg sexing have been proposed in the attempt to solve the dilemma between economy and ethics by providing an alternative to day-old chick culling in layer hatcheries. Both noninvasive and invasive sexing methods have been explored in the recent years. Other totally noninvasive sexing methods based on egg shape [3] or odor [4] were not yet practically applied.
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