Minimal Invasive Gender Determination of Birds by Means of UV-Resonance Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

The identification of avian gender is important for prosperous breeding of birds. Since birds do not possess external genital organs, endoscopic investigations, blood analysis, and molecular biological methods are applied to determine the gender in monomorphic species. However, anesthesia and blood sampling impose stress on the examined bird and should be avoided in terms of animal protection. Here we report on the application of UVresonance Raman spectroscopy as a minimal invasive method for gender determination of birds via an evaluation of feather pulp samples. Sample preparation for this investigation method is simple and facilitates a quick and easy analysis. The UV-resonance Raman spectra of the feather pulp sample extracts are dominated by DNA and protein signals. The different DNA content in male and female chicken allows for gender differentiation via its characteristic Raman fingerprint. The classification either to male or female chicken is ideally accomplished by support vector machines due to the fact that no unknown classes are involved. Recognition rates of about 95% were compared to less effective results of the unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis. Within the scope of our investigations, principal component analysis was also applied to determine the important spectral regions for the classification of chicken's feather pulp samples.

Contactless in ovo sex determination of chicken eggs

“…[2,3] IR spectroscopy was also applied for sexing of nonincubated eggs, where the germinal disk carries the genetic sex information: sexing was performed by addressing the DNA content of blastoderm cells. [4] In incubated eggs, all embryonic and extra-embryonic tissue derived from the germinal disk contain the sex information.…”

Influence of storage on the position of the germinal disc in the fertilized unincubated chicken egg

“…Thus, because of the good contrast and the potential of imaging unopened eggs, we acquired time-dependent magnetic resonance (MR) images to determine the path taken and time scale required for the disc to position itself on top of the yolk, allowing an accurate access for subsequent in ovo chicken sexing. Chicken sexing, not part of this study, is then performed by other methods, such as spectroscopy, that determine the differences in the DNA content (Harz et al, 2008;Steiner et al, 2010).…”

Direct analysis of clinical relevant single bacterial cells from cerebrospinal fluid during bacterial meningitis by means of micro‐Raman spectroscopy

“…Hence, there is a demand for alternative automatable methods that allow fast and sensitive detection and specific identification of pathogen microorganisms on a single cell level without pre-culturing. Hereby, spectroscopic detection, especially Raman spectroscopy, offers the capability for direct analysis of cellular structures such as microbial bulk samples [21][22][23][24] or body fluids [25,26] since it provides highly spatial resolved and detailed molecular information of the investigated sample [27]. Micro-Raman spectroscopy with the application of microscopic objectives, an appropriate magnification and a high numerical aperture leads to a spatial resolution in the range of 1 mm.…”