欧盟已有15%的蛋鸡经过卵内性别鉴定，去年该技术全球产能增长60%

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工业化的养鸡大致上有两个目的，生产鸡蛋或鸡肉。以这个目的为前提所培育出的动物中，却有一半被认为是没有经济价值的。每一年，在全球范围内有60亿只一日龄的雄性雏鸡，因为他们无法产蛋，成长速度也不够快，一旦破壳出生后，就难逃被活生生丢进粉碎机的命运。

随着消费者对于可追溯、可持续、人道的诉求日益增加，德國率先在2022年起禁止宰杀雄性雏鸡。之后，法国、意大利等国家也纷纷跟进。在经济上，对养鸡场来说，提早将雄性鸡蛋鉴别出来就能腾出约50%的孵化空间，增加的利润空间相当可观。

当前市场上已经有足够成熟的技术，保护公鸡的“不出生权”，也就是在小鸡孵化之前，就判断出胚胎的性别，在他们感受到疼痛前将鸡蛋转为用于蛋白粉或宠物粮。

目前广泛为养鸡场所使用的卵内性别鉴定技术，包含由Agri Advanced Technology研发的高光谱成像技术。这项非侵入式的技术透过不同波段的电磁频谱探测，可以在小鸡孵化的第12天根据雏鸟的羽毛颜色，判定性别。唯一的缺点是这种技术只适用于黄羽鸡。

另一种已经商业化的技术由Orbem公司开发，结合了人工智慧与MRI核磁共振，让养殖场以无接触、非侵入的方式确认性别。此外，液体分析也是已经商业化的方案，PlantEgg、In-Ovo及Respeggt三家企业均有相关技术。其他在研发中的技术，包含成本相对较低的基因编辑、性别逆转、挥发性分析、Omegga公司的光谱图像捕捉技术等，这些性别鉴定方案在黄羽及白羽鸡上都适用。

无论是上述侵入式或非侵入式的卵内鉴别技术，都可达到96%以上的正确性，有些甚至已经达到99%。

“由于技术发展成熟，欧盟已有15%的蛋鸡经过卵内性别鉴定，2023年第四季该技术全球产能增长23%，” 非盈利组织创新动物农业（Innovate Animal Ag）首席执行官Robert Yaman表示。

德国鸡蛋认证及追溯监管组织KAT（Verein für kontrollierte alternative Tierhaltungsformen e.V）也在同一季度宣布，在因应禁止宰杀公雏鸡的技术中，卵内性别鉴定是较可持续的、经济性较高的方案，未来有潜力成为市场主流。

结合人工智能与磁共振成像的卵内性别鉴定技术（图片由Orbem公司提供）

在成本方面，Yaman进一步指出，由于产能扩张，卵内性别鉴定的成本已经较前有显著的降低，随着技术的成熟及经济规模的扩大，在可见的未来，卵内性别鉴定的成本将持续大幅降低。

中国作为全球蛋鸡、肉鸡生产大国，卵内性别鉴定技术在国内的蛋鸡、肉种鸡行业当中，并非陌生的技术，已经有部分企业在试验评估阶段，在消费意识升级的驱动之下，2024年很可能是这些前沿技术在中国迈向商业应用的一年。

EU's In-Ovo Sexing Adoption Reaches 15%, Global Capacity Surges by 23% by End of 2023

Industrialized poultry farming typically serves two purposes: egg or meat production. However, nearly half of the animals bred for these purposes are considered economically worthless. Each year, globally, there are around 6 billion day-old male chicks, as they are unable to lay eggs and grow too slowly. Once hatched, they often face the fate of being ground up alive.

As consumer demands for traceable, sustainable, and humane products increase, Germany took the lead in 2022 by banning the slaughter of male chicks. Following suit, countries like France, Italy, and others joined in. Economically, early identification of male eggs can free up approximately 50% of incubation space for poultry farms, resulting in substantial profit margins.

Currently, there are mature technologies in the market aimed at protecting the "right to not be born" of male chicks, determining the gender of embryos before hatching and converting them into egg powder or pet food before they can perceive pain.

The widely used in-ovo sexing technology in poultry farms includes the high-spectral imaging technology developed by Agri Advanced Technology. This non-invasive technology detects electromagnetic spectra in different bands to determine the gender based on the color of the chicks' feathers on the 12th day of incubation. However, this technique is only applicable to brown-feathered chickens.

Another commercially available technology, developed by Orbem, combines artificial intelligence and MRI to confirm gender in farms in a non-invasive manner. Other technologies in development include gene editing, gender reversal, volatile analysis, PlantEgg, liquid analysis developed by In-Ovo and Respeggt, as well as Omegga's spectral imaging technology, which are suitable for brown and white-feathered chickens.

Both invasive and non-invasive in-ovo sexing techniques mentioned above can achieve an accuracy of over 96%, with some even reaching 99%.

"Due to the mature development of technology, 15% of egg-laying hens in the EU have undergone in-ovo sexing, with global capacity for this technology increasing by 23% by the fourth quarter of 2023," said Robert Yaman, CEO of Innovate Animal Ag, a non-profit organization.

The German egg certification and traceability regulatory organization KAT (Verein für kontrollierte alternative Tierhaltungsformen e.V) also announced in the same quarter that in-ovo sexing is a more sustainable and economically viable solution in response to the ban on slaughtering male chicks, with the potential to become mainstream in the future.

In terms of cost, Yaman further pointed out that the cost of in-ovo sexing in Europe has dropped to approximately 1 cent per egg, equivalent to 0.7 yuan (RMB). With the maturity of technology and the expansion of economies of scale, the cost of in-ovo sexing is expected to continue to decrease significantly in the visible future.

China, as a major global producer of both egg-laying and meat chickens, is no stranger to in-ovo sexing technology in its poultry industry. With some companies already in the trial and evaluation stage, driven by the increasing consumer awareness, 2024 is likely to be the year when these cutting-edge technologies in China move towards commercial applications.

来源：蛋眼观天

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