Embrex Inc, The In Ovo Company announced two key U.S. patents issued recently by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Assigned to Embrex, Patent No. 6,506,570 (the '570 patent) relates to a method of determining the gender of a bird in ovo (in the egg) and Patent No. 6,510,811 (the '811 patent) relates to a method for localizing the allantoic fluid of avian eggs.

The '570 patent covers methods of detecting the elevated levels of a sex- related hormone, such as estrogen, in a bird egg. For example, a high level of estrogen denotes a female chick will hatch. Embrex is developing and commercially testing the world's first automated prototype device that detects estrogenic compounds in the allantoic fluid of embryonated eggs. The inventor is Patricia Phelps, Senior Director, Product Development and Marketing at Embrex.

The '811 patent encompasses methods of pooling, or localizing, the allantoic fluid present in an avian egg so that the fluid may be readily sampled, a probe may be inserted into the fluid, or a substance may be injected into the fluid. The inventors are Thomas Bryan, Director of Process Development at Embrex and Ann Gore of North Carolina.

Currently, broiler breeders, layers and turkeys are sorted by gender after hatch. Traditionally, gender sorting is conducted manually by visual inspection either of the bird's feathers, or its reproductive structures. This can be a time-consuming, difficult, tedious process and automation would offer many advantages to the poultry industry, including:

* Elimination of a slow feathering gene currently used to identify males from females. This gene has been linked to problems with growth.
* Reduction of chick handling and stress improving bird performance
* Earlier male/female identification to improve production logistics
* Quicker processing at hatch so birds obtain feed and water more rapidly
* Automation of a manual operation for improved accuracy and labor savings

"These patents reinforce Embrex's position as The In Ovo Company(SM), using our in ovo insight and knowledge to automate another hatchery practice," said Randall L. Marcuson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Embrex. "We believe that automating this process will benefit breeders and layers first, since they have a strong need to know the gender of the birds they are producing. Longer term, it should be useful to the meat industry as well, since male and female broilers grow at different rates and could benefit from specific nutritional programs."

Currently, all broiler breeders and layer chicks as well as turkeys are sorted by gender. Only 25% of all broilers chicks (meat chickens) are sorted by gender, primarily due to cost and producers' current needs. Sex-separate rearing of broilers is increasing due to the increased demand for further processed poultry items, which calls for greater uniformity of size and a wider range of bird sizes than traditional broilers. The primary value will be achieved in poultry produced for fast-food markets and further processing or de-boned products.

Embrex's current gender sort prototype system, being developed in conjunction with Cobb-Vantress, the leading U.S. breeder, is most suitable for the breeder industry however, upon successful introduction into the breeding industry Embrex will begin development of a device specifically designed for the much larger broiler industry.