Gender selection in sight for global poultry industry

 

 

If poultry producers could determine the gender of chickens, an ethical issue would be out of the way for the industry.

 

Each year the global egg industry kills six billion male chicks as soon as they hatch, an issue CSIRO's Tim Doran says biotechnology could prevent.

 

Selective breeding have improved chicken production, and biotechnology is the next step, said Doran.

 

He said male chicks are killed at day one because they do not lay eggs, and it would be great if the system is changed so there will not be wastage and a significant welfare issue will be eliminated.

 

The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), along with researchers at the University of Melbourne, are looking into sex determination in chickens. The researchers want to find out which gene is responsible for deciding the gender of the chicken.

 

The University of Melbourne researchers collaborated with the CSIRO to use its RNA interference technology, which can be used to "switch genes on and off".

 

Doran said the researchers found that when a certain gene was switched off in a developing male embryo, which remains male, it develops female. So instead of two testes, it has two ovaries, he said.

 

But solving one ethical issue can lead to a new one, as this can be treated as genetic engineering. Doran argued that this is not a genetically modified organism as there is no introduction of any new DNA, and that they are just switching off an existing gene.

 

Still, there is a need to consider the ethics of this research, even if the chicken will not act any differently, he added.

 

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is the national government body for scientific research in Australia.