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Animal Welfare initiatives Pain management

La fin de l’élimination des poussins mâles programmée pour 2022

By August 24th, 2021September 7th, 2021No Comments

Document type: Article published in Ouest France

Author: Christophe Violette

Preview: Next year, France will be the first country in the world, along with Germany, to put an end to this controversial practice. This will be achieved by sexing the embryos well before they hatch.

Each year in France, around 50 million newly hatched male chicks are culled in hatcheries. They are culled because they are of no use to a sector where the core focus is the production of eggs, and therefore hens. This practice regularly gives rise to controversy.

"The year 2022 will be the year of the end of the crushing and gassing of male chicks. France will thus be the first country in the world, along with Germany, to put an end to the elimination of male chicks," an announcement signed this summer by Julien Denormandie, the Minister of Agriculture. Who was already considering it last fall.

Sexing in the egg (in ovo)

For more than a year now, both countries have been hard at work to put an end to this practice of culling in answer to the pressing expectations of consumers and animal protection associations. Alternatives to the culling of male chicks have been put in place in both partner countries, taking into account the anticipated financial investment that will be required of hatcheries.  The technical solution that is planned involves the use of in ovo sexing machines which can detect the sex of the future chick while still in the egg.

These technologies, designed by two German companies, are already in use in France. Seleggt offers a process that allows sexing of the incubated egg from the 9th day, while AAT offers sexing of the egg from the 13th day. In February 2020, Carrefour announced the launch of the first eggs from sexed hens to appear under its brand, in partnership with Loué and AAT.

10 million provided to help with 64 million in additional costs

In France, a draft decree will be submitted to the Council of State at the end of the summer, laying down the requirement that, by 1 January 2022, all hatcheries must have installed or ordered the new machines, the government tells us. To provide financial help to the industry for the necessary costs, it has set aside 10 million euros in grants (as part of the French Recovery Plan France Relance). Additionally, France and Germany will argue for this plan to be rolled out across the entire European Union. This is In order to avoid disruption of the level playing field for the sector.

But the accounts are not good, according to Breton producer groups, far from it. If the UGPVB is pleased "with the 10 million to modernize the hatcheries", it deplores "the total absence of operational device in place to assume the annual additional costs related to the generalized use of this technique", which it estimates at... 64 million euros per year! Moreover, the UGPVB fears it, the big distribution "will never compensate durably the estimated impact from 2 to 8 cents on a box of six eggs". Finally the UGPVB claims "the imposition of trade barriers" for third countries like Ukraine.

For its part, the association Welfarm "welcomes these important initiatives". However, it recalls that sexing in ovo must be carried out as soon as possible, i.e. before seven days of incubation. "Current research allows us to affirm that the embryo does not feel any pain until six days. According to Ghislain Zuccolo, of Welfarm, "300 million male chicks are destroyed, once hatched, each year in Europe. This is the illustration of productivism pushed to its paroxysm".

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