Developing predictive models for sex determination based on weight, length and width of eggs in White leghorn laying hens

In layer industry, females are the preferable gender. This intensification gave rise to killing of billions of dayold male chicks in commercial hatcheries on day-one itself. This practice results in the waste of hatching cost and raises serious concern about animal welfare. The most reliable solution is determination of the sex of embryos prior to hatch, preferably before incubation. In the current study, an attempt was made to identify sex of chick embryo before incubation by using egg morphometry like weight, length and width. About 48 White leghorn laying hens of 30-32 and 50-52 weeks old (24 each) were reared in individual laying cages for a period of 120 days under the division of poultry housing management, ICAR-Central Avian Research Institute, Izatnagar. Birds were inseminated with pooled semen (1:8) at 5 days interval to collect hatching eggs and weight, length and width of eggs were recorded on daily basis. These eggs were incubated and day- old chicks hatched from these eggs were vent sexed and the data from 2800 chicks were collected and statistical analysis was carried out. Egg weight, length and width were found to have a significant effect (p<0.05) on determining the sex of chicks. Regression analysis was done using various morphometric parameters of egg for prediction of sex of chick from the above findings. These regression equations were made by using different combinations of morphometric values. Using paired sample test, better predictions were found out which can be further used for predicting the sex of eggs before incubation. . Keywords: Sex determination, egg weight, egg morphometry