How to prevent chick culling in the poultry industry? Discovery of a new biomarker for in ovo gender screening

Chicken eggs are one of the most consumed foods worldwide. However, the practice of chicken culling in the poultry industry involves unnecessary animal suffering and finding a way to put an end to this has become a societal priority. One approach that has been propagated as acceptable is based on the selection of female eggs early in the incubation process and the devitalization of the male eggs. It is with this objective in mind that we searched for a biomarker for early gender screening in eggs. Applying an untargeted mass spectrometry approach, we profiled allantoic fluid of different day-old eggs and identified the feature 3-[(2-aminoethyl)sulfanyl]butanoic acid (ASBA) as a strong biomarker for in-ovo gender prediction for day-9 old embryos. After validation using LC-APCI-MRM with an internal standard, we found ASBA can predict the female gender with a sensitivity and specificity well above 95% in our experiments. Highlights ![Figure][1] ### Competing Interest Statement W.S. Bruins reports financial support was provided by European Innovation Council. W.S. Bruins reports financial support was provided by Interreg North-West Europe. W.S. Bruins reports financial support was provided by Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. W.S. Bruins reports financial support was provided by In Ovo Holding B.V. W.S. Bruins has patent Gender, viability and/or developmental stage determination of avian embryos in ovo. issued to In Ovo Holding B.V. W.S. Bruins has patent Method and system for the non-destructive in ovo determination of fowl gender. issued to In Ovo Holding B.V. W.S. Bruins, T. Hankemeier, B. Teunissen, N. Drouin has patent Egg characteristic determining method and device. pending to In Ovo Holding B.V. W.S. Bruins has patent Egg sample transferring device. pending to In Ovo Holding B.V. [1]: pending:yes