Mini6Ei

Minimally invasive sex detection in six-day-old hatching eggs using time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy

In Germany 45 million, worldwide 7 billion male day-old chicks are killed per year. The OWL University of Applied Sciences is now working on a technical solution with partners from the universities of Bielefeld and Potsdam, as well as a breeding farm: with a hit accuracy of 98 percent, the sex can now be determined on the membrane within only minimal removal of the eggshell. Two laboratories with a variable frequency picosecond laser  and a time correlated single photon counting systems for time-resolved spectroscopy are going to be set up for this purpose.

This eliminates a stress factor for the embryos, and the procedure itself is an important milestone on the way to industrial use in hatcheries. Sex determination is thus possible at an early hatching stage.

Sponsor:                           BMEL

Funding Program:         Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture

Funding Code:                28N-2-073-01

Cooperation Partners:  InIT (TH-OWL), ILT.NRW (TH-OWL), Uni Bielefeld, Uni Potsdam, Agri Advanced Technologies GmbH

Duration:                           April 2023 - 31. März 2026

Project participants:      Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Danneel, Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Helene Dörksen