Bye bye boys

[Perris]

It seems that industrial chicken breeders have finally solved the problem of how to produce only pullets
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63937438
It will, apparently, save millions of male chicks from death by disposal just after they hatch, and save the firms who buy into it the wages of the chick sexers and the plant currently needed to process unwanted males.

I wonder which animal will be next for gender editing.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Mixed feelings/thoughts. I’m not against gene editing on moral grounds. I don’t believe its playing God. “Playing God” would be creating life from non-life. Modifying the life that already exists has been around for as long as humans have been domesticating other species of plants and animals.

I am concerned about unintended consequences.

 

[Tonyroo]

If that becomes a practice around the world of poultry. I hope they label and identify the chickens with this ability. So hobbyist and breeders can avoid them.

 

[Silkiesaz]

It seems that industrial chicken breeders have finally solved the problem of how to produce only pullets
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63937438
It will, apparently, save millions of male chicks from death by disposal just after they hatch, and save the firms who buy into it the wages of the chick sexers and the plant currently needed to process unwanted males.

I wonder which animal will be next for gender editing.

When they shine the blue light on the egg the male eggs die, I don't really see how this solves the problem. They are simply killing the boys before they are born.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

This is a great exercise in studying media spin. The article headline:

“Gene-edited hens may end cull of billions of chicks”​

Here is an alternate headline that is just as accurrate:

“Gene-edited hens to create weaker male embryos that die when exposed to certain lights”

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Wait, so when they shine the blue light on the egg the male eggs die?

That’s what I took out of it. It still involves killing the male chicks. It just happens very early in the development process instead of after hatching.

So either way there is still waste. There’s either going to be a chick that gets ground into dogfood or an egg with a dead embryo inside. I am not sure what uses the egg is after that. Would an egg with a dead embryo have the same shelf life as one with a living embryo that hasn’t started development?

 

[JedJackson]

I have mixed feelings as well. On one hand it would save lots of male chicks from suffering and death. But I am not really comfortable with eating eggs/meat from Frankenchickens. Good opportunity for backyard chicken owners to sell non-gene editted eggs/meat, though.

 

[LaurenRitz]

On the unintended consequences angle. Understand that I am going from memory here, but some time back millions of gene edited female mosquitos were released in Florida, with the idea that they would mate with the wild males and thus eventually reduce the population to nothing, as their offspring would be sterile without the application of certain hormones.

A small percentage of the offspring turned out to be fertile, and because of changes made were even more virulent than the wild populations.

The scientists make changes, possibly with good intentions, but their understanding is still incredibly basic, like a child with a Lincoln Log set being commissioned to build a bridge.

Every time humanity starts playing around with biological systems we make a mess, but without the knowledge of how to clean it up afterward.

This will be no different.

 

[Silkiesaz]

That’s what I took out of it. It still involves killing the male chicks. It just happens very early in the development process instead of after hatching.

So either way there is still waste. There’s either going to be a chick that gets ground into dogfood or an egg with a dead embryo inside. I am not sure what uses the egg is after that. Would an egg with a dead embryo have the same shelf life as one with a living embryo that hasn’t started development?

They probably just throw away the eggs. It is not really an improvement for the chickens, they are still killing millions of birds. It just helps the business make more profit.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thats fair too, did the people who came up with this think of that? How will the altering affect the hens hatched from the eggs? And what about the hens laying the eggs. Do they all have the same quality of life as normal chickens?

I believe from the article some of that is what they are still studying - will the edited hens be normal (as far as they can tell).
I am sure it would never be available to a backyard chicken person, but if it were, I think I would use it. I would buy eggs rather than subect chicks to the stress of shipping, and I would blue-light them - and then I would use the dead eggs for animal food (assuming I could tell which those were).