Pre-hatch sexing for chicken based on immuno-interrogation

早期的性别鉴定对家禽生产至关重要，因为现代鸡系的密集选择已经导致了高度不同的蛋鸡和肉鸡系谱。然而，孵化后的性别比例保持在大约1：1，由此导致的工业化产蛋业对雄性雏鸟的大规模扑杀引发了动物福利和伦理问题，法国和德国很快将禁止这种做法。因此，早期(孵化前)性别鉴定对这些国家的工业和解决伦理/动物福利问题至关重要。家禽业是加拿大经济的主要贡献者，生产了价值44亿美元的家禽产品，为农业运营贡献了7.1%的现金收入。加拿大鸡蛋生产行业的目标是停止在孵化后杀死雄性雏鸟的做法。在孵化前使用非侵入性或微侵入性方法确定鸡胚胎的性别是深入研究的重点。在鸟类中，雄性和雌性分别是ZZ和ZW；我们已经证明了可以通过检测W染色体上是否存在特殊编码的蛋白质来预测鸡胚胎的性别，方法是使用从绒毛尿囊膜(CAM)采集的微量胚胎外组织(发明披露文件#UOTT.20.021；Ahmed和Hincke，背景知识产权)。本研究项目的目标是建立和验证一种免疫化学方法来确定卵子的性别决定，方法是在胚胎早期检测W染色体上编码的CAM特异性蛋白(S)的存在。这项NSERC联盟提案由加拿大蛋农和加拿大家禽研究理事会共同资助，加拿大家禽和鸡蛋加工商理事会(CPEPC)参与其中。

Early sex identification is crucial for poultry production, since intensive selection of modern chicken lines for commercial production has resulted in highly divergent layer and broiler pedigree lines. However, the sex ratio after hatching remains approximately 1:1 and the resulting large-scale culling of male chicks in the industrial egg laying sector raises animal welfare and ethical concerns, and will be banned soon in France and Germany. Therefore, early (pre-hatch) sex identification is essential for these national industries, and to address ethical / animal welfare issues. The poultry industry is a major contributor to Canada's economy, producing poultry products worth $4.4 billion and contributing 7.1% of cash receipts to farming operations. The Canadian egg production industry is aiming to discontinue the practice of killing male chicks after hatching. Determination of the chick embryo sex using non-invasive or minimally invasive approaches before hatching is the focus of intensive research. In birds, the male and female genotype is ZZ and ZW, respectively; we have demonstrated that the sex of a chicken embryo can be predicted by detecting the presence of proteins specifically encoded on the W chromosome, using minute amounts of extra-embryonic tissue harvested from the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) (Invention Disclosure file # UOTT.20.021; Ahmed and Hincke, background intellectual property). The objective of this research project will be to develop and validate an immunochemical approach to sex determination in ovo, by detecting the presence of CAM-specific protein(s) encoded on the W chromosome, at the earliest possible embryonic age. This NSERC Alliance proposal is jointly funded by Egg Farmers of Canada and the Canadian Poultry Research Council, with participation of the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council (CPEPC).