Japanese organizations join hands to develop technology to determine sex of chicken eggs

Background and challenges

Globally, the culling of male chicks is a challenge from an animal welfare perspective. Since only female chickens can produce eggs for consumption, approximately 6.6 billion male chicks are currently culled immediately after hatching each year.

To address this challenge, in-egg sexing technology is being developed to determine the sex of chicks before hatching. By distinguishing between male and female before hatching, male eggs can be selected, preventing the hatching of male chicks.

Furthermore, technology that performs sexing 8 to 12 days after hatching, before pain sensation develops, is being put into practical use mainly in the EU, and efforts are underway to achieve a higher level of animal welfare.

Hitachi Solutions Create and NARO began joint experiments and development of early sexing of chicken eggs in 2019, and Kyushu Institute of Technology joined in 2023 to advance the joint experiments and development.

Technologies developed to solve problems

Hitachi Solutions Create leveraged its strengths in image recognition AI technology, NARO in biological knowledge of chicken eggs, and Kyushu Institute of Technology in optical technology to develop a technology for sexing eggs.

[1] Realizing sex determination using AI

Hitachi Solutions Create has developed an AI model that determines the sex of an embryo by utilizing research and knowledge from NARO, which shows that different characteristics of male and female embryos appear in the embryo and its surroundings from the early stages of incubation (days 2-6).

This model is obtained by partially removing the eggshell, visualizing the inside of the egg, and photographing images of the embryo and its surroundings.

In joint experiments with NARO, it was discovered that the AI ​​model, trained on images of chicken eggs, can capture the different characteristics of male and female embryos that are indistinguishable to the human eye.

[2] Realizing sex determination without damaging the egg on day 3

Hitachi Solutions Create and NARO have demonstrated that the AI ​​model can determine the sex of an embryo with high accuracy on day 3 of incubation.

Furthermore, to enable sex determination without damaging the egg, they conducted repeated experiments to make the embryo and its surroundings ‘visible with AI’ even through the eggshell, and found an appropriate method for setting up the chicken eggs and the placement and shooting method of the camera and light source.

[3] Achieving high discrimination accuracy

Hitachi Solutions Create, NARO and Kyushu Institute of Technology challenged themselves to further enhance the clarity of images of chicken eggs in order to achieve high discrimination accuracy.

Specifically, they applied image processing technology developed by Kyushu Institute of Technology, which reduces poor visibility in digital photographic images and emphasizes the parts they want to see, by reducing information unnecessary for sex determination, such as the eggshell and the membrane (cuticle) covering the egg surface, and emphasizing the information of the necessary parts from images of chicken eggs.

In addition, using Hitachi Solutions Create’s AI technology, they created diverse training data based on these processed images to enable high-precision discrimination under various conditions, and generated an AI model by training on these images. This confirmed that highly accurate sex determination is possible.

Confirmed effects

The three organizations confirmed that they can determine the sex of chicken eggs on the third day of incubation with an accuracy of up to 97% without damaging them.

Future outlook

Going forward, Hitachi Solutions Create aims to commercialize this technology by developing customized models that are tailored to the specific environmental characteristics of each incubation facility, using this technology as a standard model, and by establishing partnerships with companies in the egg industry.

About Hitachi Solutions Create

As an IT company within the Hitachi Group, Hitachi Solutions Create leverages its advanced IT expertise and extensive experience cultivated across a wide range of industries, including finance, social infrastructure/public services, and industry/distribution, to provide cutting-edge solutions.

One of its strengths is AI technology, which we began working on in 2017. The company has been supporting its customers in solving their challenges, primarily through image recognition AI and generative AI technologies.

Moving forward, the company will continue to contribute to creating a brighter future where everyone can experience peace of mind, safety and happiness by providing solutions utilizing advanced technologies.

About the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO)

The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) is Japan’s largest research institution in the fields of agriculture and food.

Through the realization of Society 5.0, NARO aims to achieve three goals simultaneously:

1. Food security and increased self-sufficiency.
2. Strengthening industrial competitiveness and expanding exports.
3. Improving productivity and protecting the environment.

NARO promotes research and development in a wide range of fields, including breeding, cultivation, livestock farming, food processing, smart agriculture, AI, biotechnology, disaster prevention and mitigation, environment, animal and plant quarantine, and seed management.

About Kyushu Institute of Technology

Kyushu Institute of Technology, a national university corporation, originated from the private Meiji Technical School established in 1909.

Based on the philosophy of nurturing gentlemen proficient in technology, it has produced many outstanding engineers.

Aiming for further advancement, under the Kyushu Institute of Technology Vision 2040 – Impact the Next Industry, it is working to become a university that creates innovations that will have a global impact.