Egg Production and GE Ethics

There is an unfortunate side to egg production.  Only female chickens produce eggs, so layers are selected at hatching.  Chicks are sexed with a vent inspection. Females are kept for egg production.  Males live a short ride down a conveyor into a chipper, where they are instantly killed.  This practice raises ethical and practical questions.  Dr. Nigel Urwin and his collaborators devised a way to identify the sex of eggs before hatching, allowing male eggs to be saved for direct consumption or vaccine manufacture. The concept is brilliant yet unfortunately stalled.  It is a great solution to an important problem with interesting  ethical edges.