Every year, around the world, billions of chicks are killed just hours after birth for one single reason: they are male. A little-known reality, but one deeply linked to the functioning of the egg industry and intensive farming.
Male chicks do not lay eggs and, unlike genetically selected meat chickens (the so-called broilers), they grow more slowly and are not economically competitive. For this reason, in industrial farms dedicated to egg production, they are considered an “unnecessary cost.” Keeping them alive would mean feeding and caring for them without any economic return.
The result is a brutal practice: they are eliminated within the first day of life, often through mechanical shredding, after being manually separated from the females on conveyor belts.
In-ovo sexing technologies: a concrete solution
Science, however, now offers an alternative. In-ovo sexing technologies make it possible to identify the sex of the embryo before the egg hatches, preventing male chicks from being born only to be killed.
These systems are based on hormonal or biological analyses carried out as early as about nine days after fertilization. Eggs containing male embryos are separated and not incubated further. They are not wasted: they can be reused as ingredients for high-protein animal feed.
The advantage is twofold:
millions of unnecessary deaths are avoided;
costs for companies are also reduced.
Italy’s opening: dialogue between institutions, companies, and animal rights advocates
In recent months, the issue has also reached the table of the Ministry of Health, which has launched discussions with Assoavi, the Italian association of egg producers, and with Animal Equality, an organization committed to animal protection.
The first trial of in-ovo sexing technologies in Italy has been announced at a national hatchery, following the example of other European countries such as France. Assoavi has made a public commitment to support the development and adoption of these technologies as soon as they become fully applicable and economically sustainable.
Animal Equality emphasizes that this result is also the outcome of investigations and awareness campaigns that have shown what really happens to male chicks in intensive farming, breaking the silence around a practice that is ethically difficult to justify.
A global problem, a collective responsibility
It is estimated that more than 7 billion chicks are killed every year worldwide simply because they are male. A staggering number that raises profound questions about our production model and the balance between economic efficiency and respect for life.
The introduction of in-ovo sexing does not solve all the critical issues of intensive farming, but it represents a concrete step toward reducing animal suffering, showing that more ethical solutions are possible when science, institutions, and civil society work together.
More conscious choices, even beyond food
Reducing animal exploitation does not only concern what we eat, but also the way we choose to live and consume. This is a principle that Lovingreen applies every day, offering T-shirts, sportswear, skincare products, shoes, and home furnishings selected according to a clear criterion: offering exclusively products that respect the environment and the living beings that inhabit it. Getting informed about what happens along production supply chains is the first step toward making fairer and more responsible choices.
Credits immagine by Freepik
