STRATEGY ▶▶▶
Schaffelaarbos in Barneveld for this. Seleggt produces the brotherless laying hens in Barneveld in the former Reemst Hatchery where between 20,000 and 40,000 hen chickens can be hatched every week. With the demand for brotherless eggs growing, Seleggt can install the analysis technique in other hatcheries as well. “Seleggt is working on the further development of the technology,” says Haarman. “It is still rela- tively labour instensive. The eggs containing male embryos are selected automatically but the eggs with female embryos have to be put back in the setter trays by hand. Naturally, we want to reduce the amount of manual work by using robot technology, and that is currently in development.”
Smart marketing It will come as no surprise that sex determination comes at a cost. In theory the cost is added in the hatchery, making the hen more expensive to the farmer/integration. The cost burden is not in the value chain, however. Because it is soci- ety that demands a ban on culling male layer DOCs, it is the consumer that pays. A subsidiary of Seleggt, called Respeg- gt, markets the eggs and manages the production chain. The eggs cost 2 cents extra, paid by the end consumer and all traced and monitored with blockchain technology. Stamping the eggs with a Respeggt logo and marketing the added value ‘without chicken deaths’, the additional costs can be recouped.
Second technique A second method for determining the sex of chicks in the hatching egg became available in December 2019. The larg- est French supermarket chain Carrefour has made agree- ments with chicken supplier Loué to stop the culling of male DOCs. To achieve this, Loué will be installing German
sex-determining machines in its hatcheries and Carrefour will increase the retail price for the eggs subsequently deliv- ered. The parties will use technology from the German com- pany AAT, part of the EW Group, which also includes Lohmann Tierzucht. The technology used for the Carrefour eggs uses spectrophotometry, or cameras, to determine the sex of the embryos before they are hatched. AAT’s technolo- gy was first introduced in France in December. According to Carrefour, 30,000 eggs should benefit from this technology by 1 May. The supermarket currently charges € 1.78 for six eggs from Loué, but from May 1 the price will rise to € 1.94 per half dozen.
Future technique More news from Germany came at the beginning of 2020. Re- searchers at the Institut für Industrielle Informationstechnik of the Technische Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe in Lemgo and the Hochschule Coburg have applied for another patent for a new method to determine the sex of chicks in the egg. This method uses ‘fluorescence microscopy’ in which a tiny hole is drilled in the egg shell and the contents of the egg are zapped with a laser. According to the researchers, the sex of a chicken embryo can be established as early as day 3 of incu- bation, with a 75% chance of getting it right. The success rate at day 6 is 95%. The university is currently working on achiev- ing even greater accuracy and expects the technique to be ready ahead of the 2021 deadline set by agriculture minister Julia Klöckner to end the culling of male layer chicks. With these three novel techniques, culling the brothers of laying hens will become obsolete. The introduction of a cull-free egg proves that an ethical dilemma can be elimated through re- sponsible innovation when research, industry and retail work hand-in-hand.
Seleggt makes a small hole in the egg using a fine laser beam. A drop of fluid is then extracted with a needle. The sex determi- nation is based on hormones found in the urine of the embryo.
▶ POULTRY WORLD | No.3, 2020
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PHOTO: KOOS GROENEWOLD
PHOTO: SELEGGT
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