A Technological Breakthrough for Sex Determination in Hens’ Eggs

Jul 24, 2018

BayPAT presents the first non-invasive method

A Technological Breakthrough for Sex Determination in Hens’ Eggs

Munich, Germany, 28thMarch 2018 – The new method for the determination of the sex of embryos in hens’ eggs, which has been given the name ORBEM GENUS, not only puts an end to the shredding of chicks but also represents a fundamental innovative leap compared to the current technology available: “Unlike all other analysis techniques, the use of imaging provided by magnetic resonance imaging enables the shell of the egg to remain intact. With the help of artificial intelligence, images are automatically analyzed and classified. The inventors have therefore achieved a technological breakthrough that will set new benchmarks, especially in terms of process speed, costs and reliability", declares Dr. Robert Phelps, the CEO of the Bayerische Patentallianz GmbH (BayPAT). BayPAT is currently supervising the ongoing patent procedure and has been contracted to commercialize the invention and the property rights resulting from it.

At present, approximately 100 million chicks per year are incubated in breeding facilities in Germany. Given that they are unable to lay eggs, male chicks are culled immediately after hatching. In Germany, up to 50 million chicks meet this fate every year. In contrast, ORBEM GENUS enables the sex of chicks to be determined during the early days of incubation. This means that the eggs containing male animals can be used for other purposes before the chicks have to experience any form of pain. Furthermore, the fact that half of the eggs laid only have to be incubated for few instead of 21 days means that breeding facilities can use their breeding equipment with higher efficiency.

Another advantage arises in the case of non-fertilized eggs, which represent around 15 percent of all eggs incubated. With ORBEM GENUS, these eggs can automatically be identified before incubation and passed on to the retail market, for example tobe sold as table eggs.

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Theinventors

ORBEM GENUS wasdeveloped by lecturers and researchers at the Technical University of Munich(TUM). The brains behind the technology come from the specialist fields ofPhysics (Prof. Dr Axel Haase), Reproductive Biotechnology (Prof. Dr Benjamin Schusser, Dr. MariaLaparidou), and Bioengineering/Bioinformatics (Dr. Pedro Gómez, M.Sc. Miguel Molina).The team is planning to found a spin-off, which will also involve theacquisition of public funding and private venture capital, in order to furtherdevelop the new technology and make it ready for the market. BayPAT willadvise, accompany and support the inventors on every step along the way.

BayerischePatentallianz GmbH

The company BayerischePatentallianz GmbH (BayPAT) was founded in 2007 by the university associationUniversität Bayern e.V. and the Association of the Bavarian Universities ofApplied Sciences (UAS). Its main task is to work as a central patentcommercialisation agency to foster the transfer of technology of the 28 universitiesand universities of applied sciences in the German state of Bavaria. Under theumbrella of the Bavarian Research and Innovation Agency (BayFIA), BayPAT is aservice provider in the fields of technology transfer, IP management and IPcommercialisation. Its main clients are the Bavarian universities, universityhospitals and universities of applied sciences and their more than 25,000scientists and academics, as well as non-university research establishments,industrial enterprises and independent inventors worldwide. The main focuses ofBayPAT’s IP assessment and commercialisation activities are the fields ofbiotechnology, chemistry, medical engineering, physics, the automotiveindustry, energy engineering, communications engineering and mechanicalengineering.

Press contact:

BayerischePatentallianz GmbH

Dr. Sarah Krüger

Telefon: 089 54 80 177- 31

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