Mini6Ei: Minimally Invasive Sex Determination in Six-Day-Old Embryos Using Time-Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy
Animal welfare is becoming an increasingly central issue in our society and is also leading to research work at the interface of social acceptance and performance-optimised animal husbandry. The project "Mini6Ei" focuses on the issue of "chick shredding", which has been sparked off in the media, in order to carry out selection according to sex even before the nervous system of the growing embryo in the hen's egg has developed. The naming of the project also includes the goal: to determine the sex of the egg with the least possible changes to the egg itself, at the latest on the sixth day of incubation.
The measurement methodology used for this differs greatly from existing procedures. The fluorescence and its temporal course are recorded and analysed. The high sensitivity of this so-called time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy enables extremely high detection sensitivity, right up to single-molecule detection.
Many biological structures, such as proteins, have the property of capturing light, changing it and emitting it again. They are so-called fluorophores. Proteins occur in large numbers in the egg shell, the egg skin and the egg white as well as other components of the egg. The quantitative totality of these proteins results in a fluorescence image that, among other things, also bears gender-specific characteristics.
In order to determine gender-specific differences, the data are analysed with the help of novel authentication algorithms. These algorithms belong to the special field of machine learning and automation. The authentication methods are ideally suited for analysing measurement data to precisely determine gender and are also robust and usable in real time.
As part of the "Mini6Ei" project, the Institute Industrial IT (inIT) is working closely with the Institute for Life Science Technologies (ILT.NRW) on the TH OWL campus. In addition, inIT cooperates with these partners: Faculty of Biology and Centre for Biotechnology at Bielefeld University (CeBiTec), Institute of Chemistry - Applied Optical Sensor Technology and Spectroscopy at Potsdam University (UPOSS) and Agri Advanced Technologies GmbH (AAT).
In the course of the project, key parameters will be developed which will be sufficient as basic data to bring the measuring technology to market maturity in a performance and cost-optimised manner. Through the close interaction between science and industry, application-oriented concepts and systems will be developed that focus on maximum animal welfare.
The joint project is part of the Federal Programme Livestock Husbandry. Funding is provided by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag. The project executing agency is the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE), funding code: 28N207301.
