The need to segregate poultry based on sex is driven by sex-related differences in growth rate, market age, management practices, and nutritional requirements. Each day, poultry industry staff globally would ideally like to determine the sex of >150 million newly hatched birds. Currently, this can be done only manually at the hatchery, which is a virtually impossible undertaking. It is becoming more difficult each year to conduct manual sexing because this skill is disappearing from the workforce, is becoming unaffordable to the industry, and is encumbered by such negative effects as repetitive motion disorder. Automated sex sorting of eggs before hatching could resolve many, if not all, of these problems. We have developed a facile, rapid, and low-cost yeast-based assay that distinguishes male from female embryonated eggs before hatching based on the estrogen concentration of their allantoic fluid. Herein, we describe this novel sex-sorting technology, which we believe offers the potential to standardize and automate sex sorting in the poultry industry.
The Sex in Science programme was developed in 2011 by Dr Ele Zeggini. Its working group is comprised of approximately 20 women and men from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI).
The Sex in Science programme aims to:
raise awareness of issues facing women (and increasingly men) in science
address and challenge preconceptions
inspire women and men at different stages of their scientific careers to progress to senior levels
foster constructive discussion
inform and drive change in current practices and policy at the institutional level
explore and evaluate areas of partnership with other Institutes
communicate activities in this area externally.
These objectives require long-term effort and we have the firm commitment and support of the Sanger Institute and EMBL-EBI directorates to continue with this work into the future.
