Each year, very nearly 45 million young chickens that are male killed in Germany. Their eggs are unsuitable when it comes to market. New procedures for sex recognition should make sure they’re not also bred. David Tedevosian/ Shutterstock
In a job interview with EURACTIV Germany, Dr Ludger Breloh, the managing director associated with egg breeding company Seleggt Gmbh, talked about Germany’s present decision to permit the mass killings of young male chickens and exactly how his company’s Seleggt process might be utilized being a bridging technology until more commercially viable practices are located.
Dr Ludger Breloh, an agricultural economist, is the handling director of Seleggt GmbH, an associate for the Rewe Group. Seleggt GmbH, in cooperation because of the University of Leipzig, has continued to develop the initial method that is operational very very early sex recognition in hen eggs.
Because of the Seleggt technique, the sex of a new chicken may be determined within the egg. How exactly does this work?
Our technique is better called a hormonal, meaning a method that is hormone-based. We know already that gender-specific hormones, such as for example oestrone sulphate, seem to be contained in the non-incubated egg and they are only created into the feminine egg.
For this, one should wait about nine times before the hormones are located in the egg in adequate volume. Then we draw out a small fall of fluid through the egg, which we mix with a marker that is biochemical.
This then shows, by having a color modification, if the oestrone sulphate is current. Female eggs are then gone back to your incubator and hatched, while male eggs are prepared into animal feed.
Thus far, but, gender determination is not considered prepared for serial manufacturing, and only a few supermarkets provide these eggs. Exactly why is that?</p>
Within the last few couple of years, we now have made amazing progress in refining our technology. We are able to now analyse around 3,000 eggs each hour, per device.
Nevertheless, the method has just been used in our hatchery that is in-house so. Our chickens lay so-called Respeggt eggs, that are currently offered in about 380 supermarkets in the greater Berlin area today. The truth that these eggs just occur here, for the present time, is mainly because the number of laying hens remains workable.
Since February, but, russain brides we’ve been breeding on a more substantial scale, with about 20,000-30,000 young feminine chickens hatching each week. The first generation will be old enough to lay their own eggs by the end of July. After that, I will be seeing a number that is increasing of eggs available on the market. The Rewe Group has set it self the aim of offering these eggs in most its branches that are german the conclusion of this season.
Beginning year that is next we shall then provide and work out our technology open to hatcheries. To start with, this is carried out in a cost-neutral method.
Respeggt eggs will, consequently, be slowly in the marketplace.
Cost-neutral may possibly signify you first need to make an advance re re payment. Exactly why is that the scenario?
Our business structure consist of supermarkets spending us a licence charge – but only once the very first eggs are obtainable in supermarkets. We now have developed a Respeggt logo design to demonstrate the client that the eggs had been produced without killing young birds.
This can be a definite added value as supermarkets can then get this to marketable. Just then, will they spend us a licence charge because the hatching was made by us eggs offered by the beginning of the supply string.
The client, consequently, would additionally help alleviate problems with young birds from being slaughtered since the cost of eggs is likely to be somewhat increased.
What are the other options for the very early detection of intercourse being developed?
Yes, other practices are now being researched in eight or nine facilities global, including in Canada and Australia, but in addition in the universities of Munich and Dresden. We cannot say more info on these processes, as their development obviously happens in today’s world.
In virtually any full situation, i might welcome it if other procedures were made in the marketplace. I’m perhaps not just worried about your competitors, but additionally concerning the problem of killing chickens that are young.
To be truthful, running the complete sector with an individual technology will be a challenge that is serious.
Is the fact that because your reach continues to be too tiny?
Yes. We expect you’ll raise about 1.5 million chickens that are young our hatchery in 2010 – that is merely a fall into the ocean if you think about that a complete of 45 million young male chickens are increasingly being gassed or shredded every year.
This means we shall require a whole lot more time before reaching such high volumes. Just then will we manage to discuss about it a paradigm change. Rome had not been built in one day.
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If the Seleggt technology ended up being established, it had been labelled as being a bridging technology until other solutions had been discovered. A different one of those may be the twin usage of birds. Could that function as future of chicken agriculture?
The actual fact that people also destroy scores of young birds at all is just because we’ve been breeding two kinds of extremely optimised, exceptionally effective birds for decades: laying hens and broiler birds.
This is actually the best way we can create very cheap eggs and chicken meat. The rational objective, needless to say, is to reproduce hens which have an excellent laying performance, while their brothers have high fattening performance. That appears like a jack-of-all-trades variety of unit and that’s what it really is.
As an agricultural scientist with a PhD in farming, I’m able to let you know that we now have complementary properties that rule out of the possibility that a hen can both lay eggs productively, while also building enough muscle mass. Just one or even the other.
Nonetheless, i am hoping that the reproduction businesses continue steadily to work intensively with this issue in order for we now have a solution that is economically viable dual-use chickens.
Gender determination methods are only a short-term solution and it might definitely become more sustainable and in most of our passions whenever we could place a end to the killing of young birds.
Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic
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