Egg characteristics assessment as an enabler for in-ovo sexing technology: A review

Abstract

The culling of day-old male chicks remains a significant challenge for the egg-laying industry. While in ovo sexing technology has made strides, it has yet to achieve an optimal balance between early identification of sex at hatching, high sensitivity, and non-invasive operation. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the research progress in in ovo sexing from various perspectives and to explore potential solutions in light of industrial practices and key technological bottlenecks. This study describes an efficient detection method for low-concentration samples and provides recommendations for the rapid detection of sex markers in chicken embryo allantoic fluid. Given the complexity of optical signals and the significant individual differences among eggs, the paper underscores the importance of evaluating egg characteristics in advancing in ovo sex determination technology. Based on this core concept, the use of multimodal data fusion strategies are advocated for in ovo sexing. This approach aims to deepen researchers' understanding of the complex relationship between sex labels and the high-dimensional data of breeding eggs, thereby injecting new momentum and direction into the development of this field.