The embryonated egg: a practical target for genetic based advances to improve poultry production

Embrex, Inc., P.O. Box 13989, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA. cricks@embrex.com

The embryonated avian egg is an attractive target for applying technology-based advances to improve poultry production. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the egg is immobile and can be easily accessed by high-speed automated equipment such as the commercial egg injection system used for vaccination of broilers worldwide. Second, due to successful breeding techniques, the embryonic period now composes 30 to 40% of a broiler's total lifespan, underscoring the importance of this window in the bird production life cycle. Third, the period of incubation involves rapid development from a ball of 40,000 to 60,000 undifferentiated blastodermal cells to a fully formed chick and associated extra-embryonic compartments in 21 d, allowing development of novel approaches for improving poultry production. Some of these novel approaches will be discussed in this paper and include gender discrimination of embryos and the possibility of changing the breeding paradigm through introduction of undifferentiated cells such as avian blastodermal or embryonic stem cells.