In-Ovo Sexing

In-ovo sexing is an innovative hatchery technology where the sex of a chicken egg can be determined while it’s still developing. This allows egg producers to hatch only females, providing an alternative to the culling of day-old male chicks.

The technology has advanced rapidly over the last few years, is widely available in Europe and entered the US market in late 2024. In-ovo sexing companies are racing to scale up the technology to meet this increase in global demand.

Male Chick Culling

Industrialization in the poultry sector has led to a bifurcation of the breeds we use for meat and eggs. “Broiler” chickens used for meat are optimized to grow quickly and efficiently convert feed to meat. “Layer” chickens used for eggs are optimized to lay eggs as quickly and efficiently as possible. This division of labor is why chicken meat and eggs are so affordable today. However, one unintended consequence is that male chicks of the layer breed serve no economic purpose, and are killed  immediately after hatching. In a practice that’s extremely unpopular among consumers that know about it, 7 billion day-old male chicks are killed each year in the global egg industry, usually via live maceration.

To solve this problem, innovators in Europe and around the world developed in-ovo sexing technology, which allows egg producers to use advanced biotechnology to identify which eggs will hatch male and which will hatch female. Male eggs are removed and destroyed during the incubation process before they can feel pain. These male eggs can be turned into a protein powder and incorporated into pet feed. Only the female eggs are returned to the incubator to hatch, solving the ethical problem of male chick culling.

This technology, which is now widely available in Europe, is more expensive right now (a bit less than 1 cent per table egg at the supermarket). But as the technology improves, and as economies of scale are reached, costs will fall. In-ovo sexing also unlocks other efficiencies for hatcheries like freeing up incubator space that would have been taken up by male eggs, or enabling other technologies like on-farm hatching or in-ovo vaccination, that were previously impracticable due to the necessity of post-hatch sex sorting. The additional economic benefits of such practices will help defray the cost of in-ovo sexing.

Current Commercial Status

Europe - Over the last few years, in-ovo sexing technology has become widely available in Europe, spurred by bans in Germany, France, and Italy on the practice of male chick culling. Original research by Innovate Animal Ag indicates that, as of the beginning of April 2025, around 110 million of the 393 million hens in the European Union were sexed in-ovo, a 28% market penetration. This marks a remarkable 8 percentage point increase from the year prior, when the market share was found to be around 20%. This number continues to grow quickly as more hatcheries implement the technology, the capacity of existing machines is increased, and further R&D improves the efficiency of the technology. In-ovo sexed white hens cost around €2.50-3.50 more than conventional hens in the EU, or less than one euro cent per table egg. Brown hens, depending on the technology, can be produced at cheaper prices for around €1.25 more per hen.

Two non-EU European countries have also adopted the technology. Norway was the first country globally to adopt in-ovo sexing for its local egg market without regulatory pressure in 2023 and its market penetration has now reached 22%. In Switzerland, poultry industry stakeholders also adopted in-ovo sexing technology without government regulation for the country’s two main hatcheries, and production for the entire Swiss layer flock will begin in 2025.

United States - In-ovo sexing technology is also available in the US market since late 2024, and is in the early stages of scaling up. Two US specialty egg producers, NestFresh and Kipster, are using the technology, and the first eggs produced without culling will be available to US consumers in summer 2025. There are also early indications that the technology will spread more widely. Multiple stakeholders have expressed interest in supporting the technology once it is here, including Vital Farms and Unilever. The largest US retailer, Walmart, has also included in-ovo sexing as a focus area in their latest US egg supplier guidelines. We previously predicted that in-ovo sexing would proliferate throughout the speciality category before jumping to the commodity sector, but Walmart’s announcement suggests in-ovo sexing might start to gain a footing in various segments of the market simultaneously. Indeed, the United Egg Producers, a trade association representing both commodity and speciality producers has demonstrated leadership on this issue by rolling out their own in-ovo sexing certification for the US market. Overall, growing consumer awareness and cross-segment demand in the US will drive significant growth in the near future.

Globally - The success of in-ovo sexing in Europe and the US has caught the attention of many countries around the world, especially ones with thriving specialty egg markets. For example, in Brazil, Mexico and Chile multiple major egg producers have expressed interest in using the technology. Governments in Australia and Japan and Canada have invested in R&D for a home-grown in-ovo sexing technology, and the Indian government has committed to supporting the technology once it becomes available.

Technology

There are multiple technological approaches to egg sexing, each with its own pros and cons.

In-ovo sexing is implemented at the hatchery stage of the egg supply chain. In a hatchery, fertilized eggs develop inside an incubator. When the eggs are ready to be sexed, they’re removed from the incubator and run through an in-ovo sexing machine where the male eggs are removed and processed into a byproduct like animal feed. The female eggs are then returned to the incubator to complete their development. The female eggs that are hatched are then sold to egg producers and to be raised in the same way they are now.

In-Market Solutions

Two broad approaches to in-ovo sexing have already been commercialized in Europe and the United States.

A) Imaging Technologies

Imaging technology finds a way to look “through” the shell of the egg to determine the sex of the embryo inside. Agri-AT, the current market leader with over 10 machines across Europe and 2 in the US, uses hyperspectral imaging to determine the color of the embryo’s feathers. Nectra has a similar approach, and is installed in one French hatchery. These machines only work for brown layers, since males and females have different colored feathers, and so will not offer a complete solution in markets like the US where most layers are white. However, this technology is generally available at a cheaper price point than other solutions.

Another company, Orbem, combines AI with MRI to detect the type of gonads in developing embryos in both brown and white layers. Orbem’s technology is widely deployed in 9 hatcheries throughout Europe, and it is reported that the company is preparing for US installations in 2025.

Finally, Omegga, a German-based startup, is developing an approach where specialized cameras are installed directly inside the incubator. Rather than removing the eggs from the incubator when they’re ready to be sexed, the imaging machine captures spectroscopic images over the course of multiple days. Omegga is early in its commercialization process, with one large-scale pilot in a German hatchery. 

B) Liquid-Based Analysis

Liquid-Based Analysis technologies involve making a tiny hole in the egg shell, taking a fluid sample from inside the egg, and then running a chemical or biological analysis to determine the sex. This process can be highly automated to be able to handle the capacity of the largest hatcheries. There are two companies with commercialized solutions, Respeggt and In Ovo, whose technologies vary along a number of important metrics, such as the type of analysis used. Respeggt’s Circuit is widely used throughout Europe and is also installed in one US hatchery.

Other Solutions in Development

A number of other technologies are in early trials, aiming to be able to provide accurate, affordable, and safe sexing solutions.

A) Imaging Technologies

There are two other imaging technologies for both brown and white eggs which are still in development. The first is the HyperEye technology by the Canadian company MatrixSpec solutions. The company is developing a hyperspectral imaging approach that they claim will work as early as day 4 in incubation. The Rapid Ovo Sexing Egg (ROSE) machine, in development by the French company NT2I, claims to combine a proprietary optical and AI platform to deliver imaging based in-ovo sexing at 20,000 eggs per hour after day 12 of incubation.

C) Supported by Gene Editing

Gene editing can be used to give male embryos a genetic marker that allows them to be easily identified and removed, or to stop growing entirely. Importantly, clever breeding strategies make it so that only the males carry the edited genetic trait. Neither the females nor the table eggs they lay are genetically modified. Israeli companies EggXYT and NextHen are both pioneering this type of approach, but neither are yet operational in the market.

Gene editing based solutions will require substantial up-front work to integrate the genetic changes into commercial layer breeds, which are highly optimized and tightly controlled. However, once implemented, they could potentially be extremely cheap and accurate, and work as soon as the egg is fertilized. It remains to be seen whether consumers would have concerns about using gene editing in this way, even though the eggs they eat would carry no genetic changes.

D) Volatile Analysis

Eggs naturally give off some odor via molecules that are able to escape through the egg shell, called volatiles. Innovative labs around the world are pursuing technology that can sex eggs by “smelling” these odors. Egg production lines generally already use vacuum suction cups to move eggs around, allowing this technology to potentially integrate easily into existing infrastructure.

E) Spectroscopic Imaging

In this class of technology, a small hole is made in the egg shell to allow for an optical image to be taken of the embryo inside. These imaging technologies will be more complex and expensive than their non-invasive counterparts, but would work at a very early stage of incubation. 

F) Sex Reversal

In poultry, sex can be controlled by factors outside of genetics. Israeli startup SOOS has an AI-driven incubation protocol which controls humidity, temperature, and sound vibrations to cause embryos that are genetically male to develop as phenotypically females. They’ve demonstrated the ability to hatch females at a rate of 65%, with 11% of those having a male genotype. 

Performance Criteria

There are a number of important metrics against which the various technological approaches are evaluated:

  • Price: Consumers care a lot about egg prices, highlighting the importance of minimizing the cost of in-ovo sexing. That said, in markets without regulation, in-ovo sexing will likely initially be used for eggs which already carry a price premium for being higher welfare (e.g. pasture raised, free-range, organic), providing some flexibility on cost. By comparison, premiums for cage-free eggs, which account for nearly 40% of the US market, are considerably higher than premiums for eggs produced without culling. Additionally, consumer surveys consistently show a willingness to pay several times the actual incremental cost of implementing in-ovo sexing, highlighting a compelling business opportunity for forward thinking egg producers.

  • Throughput: A modern layer hatchery can produce on the order of 20 million hens per year, meaning the throughput of in-ovo sexing needs to be able to match this scale. For each of these female chicks, around 2.4 eggs need to be sexed to account for males and infertile eggs.. Some in-ovo sexing machines, like AAT’s Cheggy, can already process 25,000 eggs per hour. Other machines, like Orbem’s Genus Focus and Respeggt’s Circuit process fewer eggs per hour, but have a modular form that can be combined to reach the type of scale needed for modern hatcheries.

  • Day of incubation: In-ovo sexing companies have a goal of being able to sex eggs as early on into the 21-day incubation process as possible in order to minimize the economic burden on hatcheries. The earlier that male eggs can be removed, the more free incubator space the hatchery will reclaim. There is also an animal welfare consideration: a study by the German government indicates that after day 13, pain perception can’t be ruled out. Therefore, in-ovo sexing should ideally work before this cutoff point.

  • Accuracy: Current manual sexing methods typically work with around 98.5% accuracy, meaning that in-ovo sexing should ideally be equally or more accurate.

Consumers

Consumer research on in-ovo sexing generally shows that consumers have low awareness of chick culling and in-ovo sexing, but once informed are extremely interested in seeing the technology implemented.

For example, a major face-to-face study of 26,000 citizens in the EU found that 75% of European citizens consider the practice of chick culling unacceptable, and that majorities in 20 EU countries agree that male chicks should not be killed even if it leads to an increase in the price of eggs. This is consistent with another study of German consumers where 89% supported finding an alternative to chick culling, and many were willing to pay multiple euros more for a box of 10 eggs. In the UK, 82% of consumers express that they were uncomfortable with the practice of chick culling.

In the United States, original research commissioned by Innovate Animal Ag showed strong consumer interest in eggs made with in-ovo sexing. According to the survey, only 11% of U.S. egg purchasers know about male chick culling, and 48% think male chicks are raised for meat. 47% of consumers (about 122 million U.S. adults) are “extremely” or “very” interested in eggs produced using in-ovo sexing; another 35% (91 million) are “slightly” interested. 71% of egg buyers are willing to pay a price premium, with the median willingness to pay being just over 36 cents per dozen. This data suggests that producers who adopt the technology will find a consumer base ready to pay more for it.

Survey data also shows significant interest from egg consumers in South America. In original research by Innovate Animal Ag, 79% of Brazilian egg buyers expressed interest in purchasing eggs produced with in-ovo sexing technology and 76% of consumers were willing to pay a premium for eggs produced with in-ovo sexing technology. In Chile, two-thirds of respondents felt that the egg industry should take the initiative to invest in in-ovo sexing technologies without waiting for any legal mandate.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Currently, male chicks are treated as a byproduct of hatcheries, and are generally processed into animal feed, not for human consumption. In some cases, whole chicks are sold as feed for snakes or other exotic animals. With in-ovo sexing, fertilized male eggs are also treated as a byproduct. They can be similarly processed into animal feed, or sold for applications in vaccines or biogas production.

  • Since in-ovo sexing only exists in Europe, it’s impossible to know for sure how expensive eggs made in this way will be to producers in other countries. Data from the European market suggests that table eggs made without culling cost less than a cent additional to produce. These eggs are thenare sold for 1-3 cents additional (12-36 cents more per dozen), which includes the increased margins from the producer and retailer. This price premium is lower than the price premium for cage-free eggs in the US, which generally fluctuates around $1 per dozen.

    The increased cost per bird that egg producers would have to pay is estimated at €1.20-3.30 per bird.

  • Eggs are kept inside an incubator for 21 days while they are developing. The power needed to maintain the temperature and environment inside these incubators is an important part of the carbon footprint of egg production. By substantially reducing the number of eggs that need to be incubated, egg producers can save power and increase the sustainability of their production process.

    Other alternatives to male chick culling are raising males for meat, or using “dual-purpose” breeds that are bred for both meat and egg production. However, given that these chickens require substantially more feed to produce the same amount of meat, it’s clear that in-ovo sexing is the only sustainable alternative to male chick culling.

  • Male rearing is another possible solution to the problem of chick culling. However, the breeds of chickens used for eggs and meat production have been optimized over decades for their specific purposes, which is how eggs and chicken are so cheap. Therefore, the meat from these male chicks needs to be sold at a loss. Long term, in-ovo sexing is the most economical solution to the problem of male chick culling.

  • In the US, many are concerned about consolidation in the egg industry, where smaller producers struggle to remain competitive in the market. However, both small and large egg producers tend to buy hens from the same hatcheries. Therefore, once in-ovo sexing is implemented, sexed hens will likely be available to both large and small egg producers alike.

  • There is not yet consensus on what to call table eggs from sexed hens in the US. In Europe, eggs made with in-ovo sexing are labeled as “Free of Chick Culling.” In a survey conducted by Innovate Animal Ag, “no-kill” was the best performing term, harkening to no-kill animal shelters. However, there are many considerations producers must take into consideration when deciding on which term will be used for eggs made in this way. It remains to be seen which term will become prominent in the market.