By 2020, it was clear that Germany would prohibit the culling of day-old layer males straight after hatch. In the run-up to that time, researchers and business where rushing to discover options. One would be to raise the roosters for meat production however, as hereditary choice didn’t take meat yield into account, this would be rather ineffective. The 2nd path was to establish in ovo sex decision approaches and get male embryos at an early phase.
With the innovation on hand and with the pressure that no eggs from layers whose brother or sisters had actually been chosen permitted onto the German table egg market, other egg-producing nations are now considering the exact same policies as Germany. France and Italy are taking their initial steps, and the Netherlands, as a primary provider to the German market, has actually currently executed the in ovo technique for flocks producing for the German market.
Science-based option
” If the day-old roosters had no function, Germany’s course would make good sense. In Austria we came to the conclusion that there is a function for the male chicks,” states Harald Schliessnig, director of the Austrian poultry health organisation QGV.
He continues: “In Austria we have just 3 layer hatcheries which hatch just a minimal variety of male layers. At the exact same time the intake of day-olds in the family pet market and zoos and in need from people with predatory animals, far surpasses the domestic surplus. That suggests we import loads of them from all over the world.”
His poultry health organisation partnered with a group of specialists from zoos and began a discussion with the Austrian ministry of health. Their conclusion was that it would make no sense to avoid male chicks being hatched by costly approaches, while at the exact same time importing the exact same number from abroad to accommodate the zoo market. Feeding chicks to zoo animals makes best sense, according to science-based arguments made by specialists in the field of predatory animals.
Transparent
According to Schliessnig, the identifying consider getting the federal government and the animal well-being NGOs to accept continue the existing culling of male layer chicks was the non-poultry market specialists.
” Obviously, we remain in the comfy position that Austria is not self enough and does not have a stake in exports to Germany. That stated, we wish to be transparent to our domestic customers also.”
The Austrian poultry market embraced 3 concepts to be future prepared. “Our natural manufacturers will raise their males, traditional production will choose the day olds for animal feed and in ovo sex decision stays a choice for the future.”
The legislation more states that chicks need to be chosen in a gentle way (CO 2) which records should be kept origin and location. “Every egg hatched is tape-recorded and with the zookeepers consisted of in the plan, we understand where they will be lastly taken in.”
