THE PROBLEM: Current solutions to determine the sex of chicken are invasive, expensive and present several limitations.
In the layer industry, chicks are culled (culling is the process of killing newly hatched poultry for which the industry has no use) by billions worldwide, on an annually basis via suffocation or grinding or even more cruel methods. The males (or cockerels) are terminated since they are not useful for laying eggs or to be bread for meat and the weak or unhealthy females are being terminated as well. Thus, more than 6 billion male chicks are killed on day of hatching generating an annual loss of 1.5-2.5 Billion Dollars (cost of unnecessary hatching, human employees as sexers, transport to hatcheries, waste management, associated carbon emissions, ethical and environmental impacts.
THE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY: a method for in-ovo, or embryo sex-determination prior to hatching (incubation) is thus highly desired due to both ethical and economic considerations.
1) There is a large and fast growing market, UN projections are that the consumption of eggs and poultry shall double within 30 years to 181 million tonnes of poultry and 102 million tonnes of eggs. Which will increase the volume of the practice of male chick culling: The estimated cost of hatching one egg and the process of gender selection and waste management is ~10 cents per egg.
2) European legislators are dealing with the problem. Germany has banned the practice of culling of male chicks and then lifted the ban while dedicating resources towards finding a solution and committing to adopt technological solutions once they become available . In addition, an end to the practice of killing male layer chicks in hatcheries is being sought by a coalition of 36 members of parliament from all sides of the French government .
3) The community (at European and worldwide level) is facing two main challenges: (1) developing resource-efficient and cost-effective solutions to secure sufficient supplies of safe, healthy and high quality food and other bio-based products and (2) developing productive, sustainable and resource-efficient primary production systems, fostering related ecosystem services and the recovery of biological diversity, alongside competitive and low-carbon supply, processing and marketing chains.
THE SOLUTION WE PROPOSE:
eggXYt has developed, a patented method –using cutting edge technologies in biology and optics - to detect the sex of the 1day embryo immediately after being laid and before entering the 21-day incubation process. In other words, we are developing the morning after pill for chicks!!! eggXYt’s solution can be used in both breeds of chickens, layers and broilers and the turkey industry, to help make the hatcheries more cost-effective by saving on incubation, feed, and labour expenses, dedicating resources just on productive units. This way, our clients - hatcheries (and practically the whole industry and end costumers) are saving money and we are creating value out of the otherwise wasted eggs. In addition, “greener” eggs can be sold for a higher price due to their “greenness” as cage free eggs etc. Price is higher, they will not need to deal with chick culling and can use the unhatched male containing eggs in secondary markets where eggs are used as an ingredient (e.g. cosmetics, pharma, pastry etc.). We are bringing a novel approach that contributes to i) Saving over 6 billion chicks lives annually ii) Saving the industry 1.5-2.5 Billion dollars annually and iii) adding over 6 billion eggs to the global food supply. In the Broiler industry, sex separation at the raring stage can save trillions of Eeros annually, by optimizing the feed amount between males and females and other benefits
