Technische Universitát Dresden

Technische Universitaet Dresden

Universitat Leipzig

Universitaet Leipzig

Thomas Bartels

Edmund Koch

Gerald Steiner

Maria-Elisabeth Krautwald-Junghanns

Grit Preusse

Roberta Galli

The invention relates to a method for the Raman spectroscopic, in ovo sex determination of fertilized and hatched birds' eggs (), wherein the embryo, including the extra-embryonic structures, can move in the egg, and is not yet attached to the shell at the time of measuring. In addition, the following steps are carried out: monitoring the time course of the hatched egg until forming at least one recognizable blood vessel (); creating a hole () in the shell in the region near to the attached bloody vessel, using a hole-generating unit; finding the blood vessel forming in the egg, using a vision system () and a coaxial or lateral illumination with light () in the visible wavelength range; positioning at least one blood vessel in the laser focus of a laser source (), either by moving the egg or moving a lens () of a device () for introducing the laser light (), and detecting the Raman scattered radiation (); registering the Raman scattered radiation of the irradiated blood vessel using the device for introducing the laser light, and for detecting the Raman scattered radiation, wherein, during the measuring process, a movement of the blood vessel out of the focus can be avoided by tracking using the vision system; evaluating the Raman scattered radiation in an evaluation unit; determining and displaying the sex of the embryo in the bird's egg.

Method and device for the raman spectroscopic, in ovo sex determination of fertilised and incubated birds' eggs

The invention relates to a method and a device () for determining the sex of fertilized, nonincubated bird eggs (), where an egg () has a solid egg shell (), an egg yolk () which is surrounded by the egg shell and further egg integuments and a blastodisc () associated with the egg yolk (), and where a probe () for measuring a spectrum is introduced through a hole () of the egg shell () towards the blastodisc () with blastodisc cells (), with the following steps: &#x2014;positioning of the probe () in the region of the blastodisc (), &#x2014;spectroscopic in-ovo characterization of the blastodisc cells (), and &#x2014;identification of the sex by an automatic classification of spectra.

Method and device for determining the sex of fertilized, non-incubated bird eggs

Growing community of inventors

Gehrden, Germany

Thomas Bartels