Non-invasive In-Ovo Sexing of Chicken Eggs using Hyperspectral Imaging and Raman Spectroscopy

To meet the demand for consumption eggs, billions of specially bred layer chickens are hatched every year. Serving no purpose in the industry, over 372 million one-day old male chickens are culled every year in Europe. One of the principal approaches to address this ethical issue, in-ovo sexing, involves the identification of embryonic sex well before hatching. While meeting industrial standards for accuracy (>95%), current commercial in-ovo sexing techniques are unfit for sexing before day 9 of incubation (E9) and their invasive nature imposes a risk for bacterial infection.

In recent years, fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy were demonstrated as promising techniques for the retrieval of sex-related biomarkers from embryonic blood for early and accurate in-ovo sexing. However, the high optical scattering of the eggshell has proven a yet insurmountable challenge in the application of these techniques in a truly non-invasive manner. This PhD project explores the use of time-resolved photonic techniques, such as spatially offset- and transmission Raman spectroscopy, for the non-invasive retrieval of currently established biomarkers related to embryonic sex.