Can New Technologies Eliminate the Grim Practice of Chick Culling?

Photo caption: Across the globe, culling has become the default strategy for the egg industry to eliminate the unwanted hatchlings. Photo credit: Edwin Remsburg / VW Pics via Getty Images. Article by Jonathan Moens, Undark. Smithsonian Magazine – March 17, 2021.

As the U.S. egg industry continues to kill male chicks, scientists are racing to develop accurate and affordable ways to sex a chick before it hatches

Every year, up to 7 billion day-old male chicks are tossed into shredding machines, gassed, or suffocated in plastic bags — a process known as chick culling. This grim ritual is underpinned by both biology and economics: Male chicks don’t lay eggs, and they fatten up too slowly to be sold as meat. Across the globe, culling has become the default strategy for the egg industry to eliminate the unwanted hatchlings. […]

Click here to view original web page at www.smithsonianmag.com