Scientists from HatchTech BV (Netherlands) did it. It is a non-invasive technique that uses light to reveal the hidden contents of chicken eggs. It would stop the meat industry's practice of slaughtering billions of male chicks at birth. By illuminating chicken eggs, millions of (chick) lives would be saved.
The study is in the journal 'Newton de Cell Press'. They discovered that when light enters the intact shell of a bird egg, it bounces back several times. And the photons travel up to two meters inside the egg's tiny four-centimeter interior. This could determine the sex of a developing embryo. Also evaluate the quality of the inside of the egg and determine if intact eggs have been fertilized.
Non-invasive
It is a non-invasive technique. It serves during embryonic development in fertilized and incubated eggs. “We solve the ethical dilemma of culling male chicks,” says Lennard van den Tweel, author of the study. Male chicks cannot lay eggs and do not grow fast enough to be profitable. That is why more than 300 million are slaughtered every year shortly after birth in European incubators alone. This practice is widely rejected by animal rights defenders. Many countries promote laws to eradicate it.
The complex way light migrates through the egg is largely ignored. So they measured the time it takes for light particles, or photons, in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths to travel specific distances as they migrate through whole eggs. The role of the shell as an "integrating sphere" that traps photons within the closed space was analyzed.
«Two meters is a very long path length, difficult to match with other natural materials. The discovery of the integrating sphere effect immediately gave meaning to several studies. These showed temporary emission tails that had initially been attributed to fluorescence," comment the researchers.
Saving lives
However, the "complex and unusual" optical properties of chicken eggs will require more research. They will use other approaches so that researchers can fully “unravel” their data. They want to improve the sensitivity of the technique developed in this study.
By illuminating chicken eggs, they will study how the effects of the photons they observed change throughout the development process of a chicken embryo. And the optical properties of each individual component of the egg. «The great dispersal capacity of bird eggshells could have evolved. It would be to protect the embryo from ultraviolet light. Or to reduce heat dissipation when parents go out to look for food," the experts conclude.
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