In Ovo, a technology company in the Netherlands using technology developed by scientists at the University of Leiden, recently received a grant of $43 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB).  Proceeds will be used to further develop and commercialize the Ella high-speed system to differentiate between eggs containing either male or female embryos.

The expansion of In Ovo will represent competition for the Respeggt alternative that detects hormones in allantoic fluid and is in commercial use in a number of hatcheries in western Europe.  This technology developed and marketed by the HatchTech Group has the support of a major multinational primary breeder and is also endorsed by a number of supermarket chains in the E.U.

In Ovo technology involves identifying a marker extracted from the allantoic fluid of eggs that is subjected to mass spectrometry. The system is based on Echo® MS technology developed by SCIEX. The prototype installation in operation in a hatchery can determine the gender of an embryo at nine days of incubation irrespective of shell color.  He current in-line Ella installation is fully automated and after sampling eggs, returns only those bearing female embryos for continued incubation.