SELEGGT Announces Breakthrough for In-Ovo Sexing

November 29, 2018

SELEGGT announced the organization has developed a market-ready process for gender identification in hatching eggs.  SELEGGT is a joint venture of the German grocery chain REWE, the Dutch technology company HatchTech B.V., and the University of Leipzig.  Funding is also being provided by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

The in-ovo sexing technology is already being used on a limited commercial basis to provide branded free-range SELEGGT eggs at 223 REWE stores in Berlin.  REWE plans to expand the product offering across Germany to 5500 stores in 2019, with all eggs produced by hens that went through the new process as hatching eggs.

SELEGGT is also developing a business model to make the technology available to the industry as a cost-neutral service. The patented process will be available to hatcheries in Germany in 2020.

The process tests eggs at day nine of incubation, with a small sample of the allantois fluid extracted from a 0.3mm hole in the eggshell. This hole is small enough it does not need to be sealed. The sample is tested for estrone sulphate, which is only in female containing eggs.

For more information see the SELEGGT fact sheet and SELEGGT FAQs.