New Test on Feather Helps Determine Bird Sex

Published: February 5, 2008

Source : EurekAlert

Scientists in Germany are reporting development of test that can answer one of the most frustrating questions in the animal kingdom: "Is that bird a boy or a girl".

Their study, a potential boon to poultry farmers and bird breeders, is scheduled for the Feb. 15 issue of ACS’ Analytical Chemistry, a semi-monthly journal.

Juergen Popp and colleagues point out that the boy-girl question can be difficult to answer in birds that lack distinctive, gender-related plumage.

Since birds lack external genital organs, sexing a bird typically involves endoscopic examination of the animal’s gonads under general anesthesia or specific molecular biological methods. Since these methods are expensive, time-consuming, and stressful for the bird, scientists long have sought a quick, minimal-invasive sexing alternative.

In the new study, researchers describe such a test, which involves analysis of tissue pulp from birds’ feathers using a highly sensitive lab instrument. The method, called ultraviolet-resonance Raman (UVRR) spectroscopy, took less than a minute, and identified the birds’ sex with 95 percent accuracy, the scientists say.

The different DNA content in male and female chicken allows for gender differentiation via its characteristic Raman fingerprint.

Source

Communities in English

Communities in Spanish

Communities in Portuguese

New Test on Feather Helps Determine Bird Sex