Why are male chicks culled in the egg industry and how can this be changed? With Mark Tizard from CSIRO

Brian Daly interviews Dr Mark Tizard, senior scientist and project leader at CSIRO.  

Mark started his career in the early days of gene cloning as part of the team that was first to identify and produce a candidate vaccine for malaria. After this he went on to complete a PhD and postdoctoral project in microbiology and gene technology before coming to Australia to work at CSIRO. After many advancements in the emerging field of gene editing, and fast forward to the present day, Mark’s team have been able to identify a method to remove males from the egg laying industry without even having to hatch or cull day old chicks.  

Join us in this episode as we unpack this gene editing technology with Mark and find out more about how this could be a very real solution to end male chick culling.  

Key points:  

• What happens with male chicks in the egg industry  
• What is gene editing and is it different to genetic modification 
• How can gene editing technology be used to stop the culling of male chicks  
• What are the challenges in this technology becoming commercially available 

Further links:  

https://kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/what-happens-with-male-chicks-in-the-egg-industry/  

https://www.rspca.org.au/facts/science/animal-welfare-seminar/2019