Preventing chick culling in the poultry industry with a new biomarker for rapid in ovo gender screening

preventing-chick-culling-in-the-poultry-industry-with-a-new-biomarker-for-rapid-in-ovo-gender-screening
Preventing chick culling in the poultry industry with a new biomarker for rapid in ovo gender screening

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to potential infringements on an IP agreement but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Michael van VLIET and Alida KINDT-DUNJKO are gratefully acknowledged for their support in data processing.

Funding

In Ovo Holding B.V. acknowledges support from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, the European Innovation Council, Interreg North-West Europe and the European Investment Bank. Nicolas DROUIN acknowledges the financial support from Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie CO-FUND (Grant Agreement No: 707404).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Nicolas Drouin, Hyung Lim Elfrink and Wouter Bruins.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metabolomics and Analytics Centre, Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University, Einsteinweg 55, 2333 CC, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Nicolas Drouin, Hyung Lim Elfrink, Slavik Koval, Amy C. Harms & Thomas Hankemeier

  2. SCIEX, 71 Four Valley Dr, Concord, ON, L4K 4V8, Canada

    Chang Liu, David M. Cox, J. Bryce Young, Farzana Azam, James Wighton & Thomas R. Covey

  3. In Ovo, Haagse Schouwweg 12, 2332 KG, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Wouter Bruins, Kelly Hoogkamer, Leonard van Bommel & Wil Stutterheim

  4. Agilent Technologies, 3 Avenue du Canada, 91940, Les Ulis, France

    Serge Desmoulins

Authors

  1. Nicolas Drouin
  2. Hyung Lim Elfrink
  3. Wouter Bruins
  4. Slavik Koval
  5. Chang Liu
  6. David M. Cox
  7. J. Bryce Young
  8. Serge Desmoulins
  9. Kelly Hoogkamer
  10. Leonard van Bommel
  11. Farzana Azam
  12. James Wighton
  13. Thomas R. Covey
  14. Wil Stutterheim
  15. Amy C. Harms
  16. Thomas Hankemeier

Contributions

Nicolas DROUIN: Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, validation, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization, project administration. Hyung Lim ELFRINK: Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, validation, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization. Slavik KOVAL: Data curation. Amy C. HARMS: Conceptualization, methodology, resources, data curation, supervision, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization, project administration, funding acquisition. Thomas HANKEMEIER: Conceptualization, methodology, resources, data curation, supervision, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization, project administration, funding acquisition. Chang LIU: Formal analysis, methodology, software, data curation, writing—original draft, visualization. David M. Cox: Software, data curation. J. Bryce YOUNG: Formal analysis, data curation. Serge DESMOULINS: Methodology, resources. Thomas R. COVEY: Methodology, resources. Farzana AZAM: Resources. James WIGHTON: Resources. Wil STUTTERHEIM: Conceptualization, methodology, resources, project administration, funding acquisition. Kelly HOOGKAMER: Resources. Leonard van BOMMEL: Resources. Wouter BRUINS: Conceptualization, methodology, resources, project administration, funding acquisition writing—review and editing.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Amy C. Harms or Thomas Hankemeier.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

W.S. Bruins has patent Gender, viability and/or developmental stage determination of avian embryos in ovo. Issued to In Ovo Holding B.V. W.S. Bruins has patent Method and system for the non-destructive in ovo determination of fowl gender. Issued to In Ovo Holding B.V. W.S. Bruins, T. Hankemeier, B. Teunissen, N. Drouin has patent Egg characteristic determining method and device. Pending to In Ovo Holding B.V. W.S. Bruins has patent Egg sample transferring device. Pending to In Ovo Holding B.V. Chang Liu has patent #Systems and Methods for Controlling Flow Through an Open Port Interface WO 2022/137120 A1 issued to Dh Technologies Development Pte. Ltd. All the remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Drouin, N., Elfrink, H.L., Bruins, W. et al. Preventing chick culling in the poultry industry with a new biomarker for rapid in ovo gender screening. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-42524-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-42524-w

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