Gene editing is the answer to the male layer chick dilemma in every hatchery across the globe.
Every hatchery’s labor of removing male chicks after pulling hatch is likely to come to an end, all things are equal with a worldwide acceptance of genetic engineering in poultry breeding and not necessarily imposing the consumption of GMOs on individuals.
What is New?
Gene Editing is the new game-changer. Research on genetic modification could produce a layer breed that only produces non-GMO layer hens, reducing the number of male chicks or possibly eliminating male chicks which are one headache on breeder farms and hatcheries worldwide.
According to Yuval Cinnamon, NRS Poultry Sustainability and Transformation. “We have developed a system which allows us to modify the chicken genome in a very accurate and desired way,”
“We can introduce a trait which stops embryogenesis at a very early stage, all-male embryos will cease to develop and will no longer hatch. Excluding male eggs from the incubators will save 50% of the space and energy, thus benefiting sustainability.”
How Genetic Engineering will Change the Breeding Game in Poultry?
The ZZ:ZW sex chromosomal system determines sex in chickens and other animals. Females have a pair of distinct chromosomes (ZW), whereas males have two similar chromosomes (ZZ), unlike the XY sex chromosomal system in humans.
The researchers used genetic engineering to construct a breeding flock of hens with a fatal embryonically inducible gene on the maternal Z chromosome. Male embryonic development is inhibited very early in development when the gene is activated by blue light exposure.
Biotechnological Tools Used in this Research
- Bioinformatics
- Tissue culture
- Molecular biology
- Genetic engineering and
- Gene editing using CRISPR technology
Finally, to the production unit of raising the newly modified breeds.
