“Gene-Edited Hens May End Cull of Billions of Chicks”, 2022-12-13 ():
Israeli researchers say they have developed gene-edited hens that lay eggs from which only female chicks hatch. The breakthrough could prevent the slaughter of billions of male chickens each year, which are culled because they don’t lay eggs.
[See ZW sex-determination system: unlike XY chromosome, where presence of Y = male, here presence = female; so Z is booby-trapped—females survive due to their spare W still functioning but the double-Z males die.]
animal welfare group, Compassion in World Farming, has backed the research. Dr Yuval Cinnamon from the Volcani institute near Tel Aviv, who is the project’s chief scientist, told BBC News that the development of what he calls the “Golda hen” will have a huge impact on animal welfare in the poultry industry. “I am very happy that we have developed a system that I think can truly revolutionize the industry, first of all for the benefit of the chickens but also for all of us, because this is an issue that affects every person on the planet”, he said…Dr Cinnamon’s team has not published their research because it is planning to license the technology through its spin out company, Huminn Poultry, so scientists independent of the research group have not been able to assess the claims.
The scientists have gene edited DNA into the Golda hens that can stop the development of any male embryos in eggs that they lay. The DNA is activated when the eggs are exposed to blue light for several hours.
The female chicks, and the eggs they lay when they mature, have no trace of the original genetic alteration. Female chick embryos are unaffected by the blue light and develop normally. The chicks have no additional genetic material inside them nor do the eggs they lay, according to Dr Cinnamon. “Farmers will get the same chicks they get today and consumers will get exactly the same eggs they get today”, he said. “The only minor difference in the production process is that the eggs will be exposed to blue light.”