Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.v.

Bjoern Fischer

Juergen Schreiber

Joerg Opitz

Carola Gerich

Petra Morgenstern

The invention relates to methods for determining the sex of birds' eggs. It can be used for an early determination of the sex, in particular in poultry farming, and in this respect also with non-incubated eggs. In the method in accordance with the invention, electromagnetic radiation is emitted onto the blastodisk of an egg by a radiation source and, after a switching off of the radiation source, the decay behavior of the autofluorescence intensity excited by the electromagnetic radiation is detected by a detector at the irradiated region of the blastodisk with time resolution and spectral resolution for at least one wavelength of the autofluorescence. The fractal dimension Dis calculated using the determined measured intensity values and the value of the fractal dimension Dis compared with a species-specific and sex-specific limit value, wherein, when the limit value is exceeded, the respective egg is classified as female and, when it is not reached, the egg is classified as male.

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Munich, Georgia

Bjoern Fischer