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c0lo [soylentnews.org] writes:

Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports [abc.net.au]:

Each year, the global egg industry kills billions of male baby chicks because only female hens lay eggs — but CSIRO scientists say they have now come up with a solution to this major ethical issue.

Chicks are bred by hatchery companies who sell the day-old animals to farmers — but before the producers receive the fluffy little chicks, they are sorted by sex.
Female chickens will grow to become hens and lay eggs until they are about 80 weeks old.
But Pete Bedwell, the editor of industry magazine Poultry Digest, said the useless males were destroyed shortly after they hatched.
...
"A day-old chick is extraordinarily cute and unfortunately that is a factor, it's killing Bambi."

Tim Doran and Mark Tizard work at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong.
Dr Tizard said an embryo could be micro-injected and a green fluorescent protein gene placed on the male chromosome.

"We're marking the chromosome that says become male. When you get to breeding to produce the birds that will go on to lay eggs, the mark follows the males and not the females."

Once the egg is marked with a new gene, a chick will hatch, which will be used to generate a breeding flock.

When the females from that flock are included in a breeding program for layer hens, their male offspring will easily be identified by a laser by their fluoro mark.

The eggs containing males will be removed and the animal will never hatch.
Dr Doran said that could be an ethical and welfare win — and that the eggs would not be wasted.

Is this genetic modification? The short answer is yes — and that has already upset anti-genetic modification groups like the Safe Food Foundation.

Director Scott Kinnear has been vocal in Australia about genetically modified crops.

"I wouldn't be satisfied that any genetic modification is safe unless it's been through an exhaustive method of testing by independent bodies," Mr Kinnear said.

Pro-life proponents can sleep well, though: no male chickens will be aborted, they won't have a chance to develop.

Original Submission