Possibilities of the Spectrometry Method in Determining the Sex of Hatching Egg Embryos

Abstract

The culling of day-old male chicks from laying hens remains a common procedure during incubation in hatchers in Russian poultry farms. It is not only unethical but also causes economic damage to poultry producers. A number of European countries have already introduced laws prohibiting the killing of one-day-old male chicks and are developing measures to limit the killing of live embryos in poultry eggs after six days of incubation. Producers are now obliged to use technology to determine the sex of a chick before it is born. From 2024, there will be a ban on killing live embryos in a poultry egg after the 6th day of incubation. The determination of the sex of an embryo in the egg before incubation remains an unresolved problem. In this regard, intensive research is being carried out to find the relationship between the morphological parameters of a freshly laid poultry egg and the sexual dimorphism of its embryo. An approach based on analysis of hyperspectral images of eggs by radiation transillumination in a wide range of waves is proposed. A setup based on a Photonfocus MV1-D2048x1088-HS05-96-G2-10 hyperspectral camera with an IMEC CMV2K-LS150-VNIR sensor enabling local illumination of a study object with an adjustable radiation source has been created and debugged for implementing this approach. Morphological parameters such as weight, area, volume, and shape ratio of eggs are not correlated with the sex of the embryo of an egg before incubation. Informative wavelengths for further studies to determine the sexual dimorphism of chicken egg embryos in the first days of incubation are 640, 660, and 688 nm.