Eggs awaiting hatching after being sorted by sex at the Lohmann hatchery in Saint-Fulgent, September 21, 2023 in Vendée (AFP/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)
A flash of light under the eggshell and the machine determines the sex of the embryo developing there.
In French hatcheries, hatchings of male chicks, incapable of laying eggs like their “sisters”, are becoming rarer, a technological and ethical advance: they were previously crushed.
In a room with white walls, employees bring carts filled with eggs into a sort of stainless steel box.
A robot unloads the eggs at the entrance to the automated line.
On the 13th day of incubation (out of 21), the eggs are briefly illuminated from below and the artificial intelligence takes action.
A hyperspectral imaging machine sorts eggs by sex at the Lohmann hatchery in Saint-Fulgent, September 25, 2023 in Vendée (AFP/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)
“The image spectrum is analyzed by computer. The shell remains intact, there is no risk of bacterial contamination”, describes Anke Förster, of the German company AAT (EW group), to journalists during a visit organized by the egg inter-professional association (CNPO).
“Decision making (of the machine) does not exceed five seconds,” adds Dhiyaeddine Rabia, technical manager who supervises the devices installed in France, Italy and Spain.
Blue suction cups grab the eggs and separate them according to the algorithm’s commands. The female embryos will return to the incubator to hatch a week later.
An employee prepares the eggs after sorting them using hyperspectral imaging to determine the sex of an embryo, at the Lohmann hatchery in Saint-Fulgent, September 21, 2023 in Vendée (AFP/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)
Clear (unfertilized) eggs and those containing males are destroyed. They will be transformed into animal food.
The machine developed by AAT, called Cheggy, can analyze 20,000 eggs per hour. The Lohmann hatchery (also a subsidiary of the EW group), in Vendée, has two and plans to install a third to “sex” up to 60,000 eggs per hour.
– A question of feathers –
The hatchery is one of five French establishments specializing in the supply of female chicks, the future laying hens.
A hyperspectral imaging machine sorts eggs by sex at the Lohmann hatchery in Saint-Fulgent, September 25, 2023 in Vendée (AFP/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)
In the world of eggs, apart from the few roosters kept for reproduction, males are superfluous, hens producing without them 1.500 billion unfertilized eggs per year to feed humans.
Their “brothers” are therefore eliminated after hatching, generally by crushing, a practice that Germany and France have banned in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
The problem does not arise in chicken meat production: males and females are raised together and slaughtered before sexual maturity.
AAT technology only works on red hens (85% of French production). In these poultry, selection resulted in white males. The machine detects this difference on the first feathers of the embryo forming in the egg.
Newly hatched chicks among eggshells in a crate at the Lohmann hatchery in Saint-Fulgent, September 21, 2023 in Vendée (AFP/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)
The hatchery shows a crate of barely hatched chicks. In the middle of dozens of red birds, a few chicks with white down: males, which the machine did not spot (it is more than 96% reliable). They will be eliminated by CO2 gassing and will end up in zoos to feed birds of prey and reptiles.
This is also the fate of male white hens. An exemption allows them to continue to be eliminated after hatching, the profession and the French government having considered that the technology was not mature enough, and too costly, concerning them.
– “We eat money” –
Two French hatcheries can, however, “sex” white hens if customers come forward.
Newly hatched chicks among eggshells in a crate at the Lohmann hatchery in Saint-Fulgent, September 21, 2023 in Vendée (AFP/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)
They invested in technology that works with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), offered by the German company Orbem. It identifies the ovaries and testicles of future chicks, allowing them to be sorted regardless of the color of the feathers.
But the rate is much lower (3,000 eggs per hour per machine). Orbem suggests installing multiple MRIs to increase sexing capacity.
The Lanckriet hatchery, in Picardy, has two at the moment.
“It’s an MRI like at the Amiens hospital center” except that its width is designed for an egg and not a human body, described to AFP Bénédicte Lanckriet, executive of the company now in the hands of her son.
Two newly hatched chicks, one red, the other white, at the Lohmann hatchery in Saint-Fulgent, September 21, 2023 in Vendée (AFP/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)
She prefers not to give the amount of the investment: “We are eating money with that, it is not profitable at all, it would have to be compulsory throughout Europe” for the demand for egg-sexed hens to increase.
For the consumer, the additional cost is estimated by the profession at 3 cents for six eggs.
The manager is nevertheless happy to be among the “precursors” of egg sexing: “Crushing animals is an aberration. From now on, we only hatch what we need.”
© 2023 AFP
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