Male Chicks

Male chicks have been dealt a bad hand. They don't lay eggs and typically have less meat [blank] their bones than hens, meaning they're not only useless but a liability to farmers. As such, these undesirable byproducts of egg production may be killed through gassing. The mass culling of male chicks is not only tragic but also resource-intensive for farmers, [blank] must manually sort males from females shortly after they hatch. But the groundbreaking development could have major implications for animal welfare [blank] the poultry industry, perhaps finally putting an end to the culling of an estimated seven billion male chicks each year shortly after they hatch due to their lack [blank] commercial value. Israeli researchers have created gene-edited hens that lay eggs from which only female chicks hatch. The team, led by Dr. Enbal Ben-Tal Cohen, used gene-editing tools to breed hens that produce eggs [blank] unviable male embryos when exposed to blue light for several hours. Female chick embryos are unaffected by the light and continue to develop normally.