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Science

Gene-edited Hens May End Cull of Billions of Chicks 118

Posted by msmash from the pushing-the-limits dept.
Israeli researchers say they have developed gene-edited hens that lay eggs from which only female chicks hatch. From a report: The breakthrough could prevent the slaughter of billions of male chickens each year, which are culled because they don't lay eggs. The female chicks, and the eggs they lay when they mature, have no trace of the original genetic alteration Animal welfare group, Compassion in World Farming, has backed the research. Dr Yuval Cinnamon from the Volcani institute near Tel Aviv, who is the project's chief scientist, told BBC News that the development of what he calls the ''Golda hen'' will have a huge impact on animal welfare in the poultry industry.

"I am very happy that we have developed a system that I think can truly revolutionise the industry, first of all for the benefit of the chickens but also for all of us, because this is an issue that affects every person on the planet," he said. The scientists have gene edited DNA into the Golda hens that can stop the development of any male embryos in eggs that they lay. The DNA is activated when the eggs are exposed to blue light for several hours. Female chick embryos are unaffected by the blue light and develop normally. The chicks have no additional genetic material inside them nor do the eggs they lay, according to Dr Cinnamon. "Farmers will get the same chicks they get today and consumers will get exactly the same eggs they get today," he said. "The only minor difference in the production process is that the eggs will be exposed to blue light."
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Gene-edited Hens May End Cull of Billions of Chicks More

Gene-edited Hens May End Cull of Billions of Chicks

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  • I would have thought just artificial insemination to produce only ZW chromosome matches would be easier than editing a gene.

    • Re:Easier than gene editing. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mspangler ( 770054 ) on Friday December 23, 2022 @11:03PM (#63154158)

      What could go wrong? The same that went wrong with bananas. They are all genetically identical so they are equally vulnerable to the next disease that comes by.

      • I think gene-editing has a better chance of that happening than artificial insemination. As I explained to ShanghaiBill, only half of each generation is suitable for breeding in order to pass on the no-males trait. You'd reach monoculture sooner with that.

        • only half of each generation is suitable for breeding in order to pass on the no-males trait. You'd reach monoculture sooner with that.

          I don't follow your reasoning. Why would the half with the gene have less diversity than the other half? All the other chromosomes (chickens have 39) would be random. Also, with cross-over, the genes on the Z chromosomes would be mostly random as well.

          Leghorns comprise 70% of America's layers and are already highly inbred. But billions of people (including me) keep backyard flocks. All my girls are Leghorns, but I kept some general-purpose breeds in the past, including Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rocks.

      • There are many different bananas on the world market - it is only North America and Europe that has only one type for sale. This goes back to an island state that has only one agricultural product and Europe agreed to buy all of it, which caused a European consumer preference for that type.

        • There are many different kinds of bananas in Europe, too.
          Especially in the countries where you can grow them, as in Greece or Spain, Portugal etc.

      • Chicken disease is actually a serious problem [ca.gov]. They get quarantined from time to time. But they are easier to quarantine than banana trees.

      • The same that went wrong with bananas. They are all genetically identical
        Except: they are not.

        I guess even at your place a random super market has more than one kind of banana ...

    • Re:Easier than gene editing. (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday December 23, 2022 @11:07PM (#63154168)

      I would have thought just artificial insemination to produce only ZW chromosome matches would be easier than editing a gene.

      Nope. Won't work.

      In birds, the sex is determined by the mother, not the father. Females are ZW, males are ZZ. So all sperm are Z, but ova are 50% Z and 50% W.

      Besides, hens lay 300 eggs per year, and there are about 300 million laying hens in America. That's a lot of inseminations. How is that "easier" than just not hatching roosters?

      • If that's the case then why couldn't they just test the membrane directly beneath the shell?

      • That's a lot of inseminations. How is that "easier" than just not hatching roosters?

        Fine, I take that.

        But now, you're going to make your entire chicken industry based on the forever reducing genetic variability of the "mother" population. The "gene" that prevents males would have roughly 50/50 chance of making it into the next generation. So you can only pick half of that generation to carry on breeding, meaning less genetic diversity.

        Then, only half of that next generation is suitable for breeding. At each step, you've brought the entire chicken population more closer to a monocultu

        • The "gene" that prevents males would have roughly 50/50 chance of making it into the next generation.

          Nope. The gene has a zero percent chance of propagating to the next generation.

          The females don't inherit it. The males all inherit it and as a result, never develop.

      • Laying hens do not need to be inseminated to lay an egg. Only eggs being sent to a hatchery are fertilized.

  • Unforeseen consequences in 3..2..1..

    • Unforeseen consequences are a possibility no matter what. Including when we take no action at all, so you're best off just trying to predict what you can, IE spend at least a little effort thinking about possible consequences, deal with those as necessary, then have a bit of a buffer for the unforeseen stuff.

      On average, unforeseen consequences aren't deal killers. In any case, this is unlikely to result in something like a disease wiping out all the banana cultivars because they're too similar genetically

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Indeed. Make progress, do research, improve things, but be careful while doing so. With that, the benefits far outweigh the risks.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      The human race has no choice in the matter. Things will be getting dicey when many/most established food crops will stop growing or have massively worse yield due to climate change. The earlier we find out how to do things like this, the better the change we can avoid civilization collapse. It does not look good as things are progressing at the moment.

  • I've never checked the sex of my KFC so we should just eat the males too. Chopped up in tenders should be EZ too.

    • Re:Eat More Cock (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday December 23, 2022 @11:16PM (#63154182)

      I've never checked the sex of my KFC so we should just eat the males too. Chopped up in tenders should be EZ too.

      Layers and fryers are completely different breeds of chicken.

      Most layers are Leghorns, which are champion egg layers but scrawny and terrible at converting feed to meat. So the males are killed as soon as they are hatched.

      Fryers are not separated by sex, and both males and females are raised to slaughter weight (about eight weeks).

      The chicken at KFC is just as likely to be male as female.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

        It's not like they actually go to waste; culled chickens of whatever stripe mostly wind up in dog food. The problem is the market value is "pay someone to haul them away".

    • You'd start checking if they started serving males to you. A quick google says: "Roosters can be eaten, but they are not commonly found in the marketplace. The meat is much more challenging than hens because it hasn't been bred to grow fast and heavy like broilers or fryers. If you decide that rooster sounds tasty, make sure you cook them low-and-slow for best results!" Slow cooking isn't going to cut it at KFC either.

      • You're confusing breed with gender. Yes, KFC does serve both male and female chickens, and you'd never be able to tell the difference.

        They aren't killing male chickens that are bred for meat, only male chickens of breeds optimized for egg-laying. Those egg-laying breeds are never sent to the grocery store, male or female.

        • "They aren't killing male chickens that are bred for meat"

          Wow that is shocking! Here I thought all the chickens I'd eaten were dead by the time I'd eaten them!

        • Those egg-laying breeds are never sent to the grocery store, male or female.

          Nitpick: When a layer "retires", they are killed, and the meat is harvested. They are scrawny and old, so they aren't sold as fryers or broilers. Instead, they are used for products like chicken soup, where the meat is cut up into small pieces and boiled until soft.

          • You are correct. That secondary market for chicken meat doesn't produce enough demand to take in all the males from the egg-laying breeds.

    • Re:Eat More Cock (Score:5, Informative)

      by quenda ( 644621 ) on Friday December 23, 2022 @11:21PM (#63154196)

      I've never checked the sex of my KFC so we should just eat the males too.

      Nope. Egg-laying chickens are very different to the breeds used for meat. They taste fine, but the chicks take far too long, consuming too much food, to grow large enough for eating. It is not economical. They are bred for relatively long lives, and copious egg production.
      Meat breeds, male or female, are fast-growing and incredibly efficient in turning vegetable protein into delicious meat.

      • I'd give you mod points if I had them. Most people don't realize that the chickens that lay eggs are completely different breeds than the ones that are sold as meat.

        • Only in industrial growing farms.

          I grew up on an end-of-the-world farm. We had 50 or so chicken by the beginning of the season. 10 or so by the end. The rest we ate. In between they laid eggs (if they were old enough), which we also ate, and some of which we used to make new chicken for next season.

          Works like a charm. Tastes good, too. Never cared for species specifics.

          • Eggzactly - all female feathered things lay eggs and they are all edible. That is why the big dinosaurs died out - they were eaten. Being tasty is not good for long term survival of a species.

            • Sure, they are edible, but they do not have the same texture as meat producing chickens like Cornish Rocks. They are stringier and have less meat, and take longer to produce it. So if you have no problem feeding the chickens longer to get that meat, go ahead, yes, they are edible. They just aren't as good.

          • I also grew up with 100-150 chickens in the back yard, some for laying eggs, and some for meat. We did eat the egg layers that didn't produce, but believe me, we didn't like the meat as well. If you thought the egg layers (like Leghorns) tasted as good as the meat producers (like Cornish Rock), you apparently didn't have a very discriminating pallet. Egg layer meat is stringier and...has less meat overall. For people who don't know the difference, by all means, go ahead, eat those egg layers or their rooste

            • you apparently didn't have a very discriminating pallet

              True, we didn't. We didn't care for specie or races -- every chick was cockin' around through the whole village, so to speak. Ass end of nowhere somewhere in Europe. Different chicken for different purposes wasn't even a concept to us. Only different colors. Whatever was an at one point, either ended up on the breakfast table or eventually gave a chicken. And all chicken got eaten sooner or later. Mostly "later" if they made good eggs, but that was more of a guideline than a hard rule :-p

              Egg layer meat is stringier and...has less meat overall. For people who don't know the difference [...]

              Oh, I do know the d

      • That's informative, thanks. Of course, instead of trying to raise the male chicks to eat them, we could just, you know... everybody loves popplers!

    • The reality of the matter is that chickens have bred to the point that the difference between meat lines and egg lines is even more profound than the differences between cows intended for milk and meat production.

      Yes, there are "heritage" breeds of chicken intended for both. But for commercial production, it's literally cheaper to produce and incubate the egg of a meat line, than the difference to raise the male egger* chicken to slaughter weight.

      I'm going by memory, but it can be as much as a factor of tw

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrKaos ( 858439 )

      I've never checked the sex of my KFC so we should just eat the males too.

      Every morning I wake to my cock standing firm and upright, crowing loudly in my backyard waking everyone up. Neighbors say "Look at his shining magnificent cock" as all the hens cluck around it looking for seed.

      If you were to fuck with that cock, well that's when a cock gets very hard indeed and fucks you up down and sideways because history reveals cock fighting was so brutal they had to ban it. If I was to wake up without my cock, I'd be sad because people would not have something to look at and go WOW

  • Only in a totally bastardized version of reality, does changing the genetics of a species, and calling it a "favor", sound great.

    --
    Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.- Garth Brooks

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Only in a totally bastardized version of reality, does changing the genetics of a species, and calling it a "favor", sound great.

      If you see how they sex chicks, it is somewhat cruel even though the males undergo a quick and painless death. Basically the sexer checks the sex of the chick, and if it's a female, it's put aside, if it's a male, it's tossed into a device that basically is a spinning drum with vanes where the chick hits it and is killed by the impact of the vane.

      Sexing chicks is actually an in-de

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      It reduces waste. It basically is beneficial for anything that wants a future on this planet. I bet you never thought that far though.

      • You're an amazing soul. Have you been tested for your psychic abilities? Maybe you can also predict the future? Please share with us.

        --
        The internet does not make people stupid. It just makes the stupid ones more obvious. - gweihir

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          How boring. You are clearly insult-challenged. What a terrible disability. My condolences.

  • eggs from which only female chicks hatch

    As your typical Slashdotter, I'd like humanity to also have a higher — perhaps, much higher — female-to-male ratio...

    slaughter of billions of male

    No, no, no! I don't want this option either. Violence is not an answer...

  • I think the punchline was “life finds a way”. Now what was it?

    • That's not how it works. Egg-laying breeds don't make good meat, and they take too long to grow large enough. Breeds raised for meat, by contrast, grow much more quickly and therefore more cheaply.

  • "The breakthrough could prevent the slaughter of billions of male chickens each year, which are culled because they don't lay eggs."

    Just sell the males to the Capon-industry.

  • This process will be a boon to feminists around the world.

  • "Life finds a way". Reminds of Jurassic park where genes were modified exactly in this way. One can add "finally we got rid of toxic masculinity in chicken". Roosters were such show-offs!

  • Does anyone see an issue with gene editing chooks to not produce males. This screams bad,

  • The breakthrough could prevent the slaughter of billions of male chickens each year

    As we all know, sex is a social construct [growinguptransgender.com] — just raise these "male" chickens as females, no genetic modifications needed!

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