CHICKEN EGGS ARE A NUTRITIOUS AND WIDELY AVAILABLE HUMAN FOOD SOURCE AROUND THE WORLD. UNFORTUNATELY, CURRENT HATCHING PROCEDURES MEAN THAT AN EQUAL NUMBER OF MALE CHICKS (ABOUT 330 MILLION IN THE US AND 6 BILLION GLOBALLY) ARE PRODUCED TO OBTAIN THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF FEMALES DESTINED FOR LAYING FLOCKS. BECAUSE MALE CHICKS HAVE NO VALUE FOR EGG PRODUCTION AND ARE NOT EFFICIENT MEAT PRODUCERS, THEY ARE KILLED SOON AFTER HATCHING. THE PRODUCTION AND CULLING OF THESE MALE CHICKS REPRESENTS A MAJOR ANIMAL WELFARE PROBLEM, AS WELL AS AN ETHICAL DILEMMA AND AN ECONOMIC BURDEN FOR THE EGG INDUSTRY. WE HYPOTHESIZE THAT COMPOUNDS NATURALLY RELEASED FROM FERTILE EGGS HAVE SOME DETECTABLE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE EGGS CONTAINING MALE VERSUS FEMALE EMBRYOS. WE WILL USE AND REFINE OPTICAL METHODS TO MEASURE THE COMPOUNDS THAT ARE EMITTED FROM FERTILE EGGS, AND THEN DETERMINE WHICH COMPOUNDS ARE CONSISTENTLY DIFFERENT (EITHER IN PRESENCE OR IN AMOUNT) BETWEEN EGGS CONTAINING MALE VERSUS FEMALE EMBRYOS. WE WILL DETERMINE IF THERE ARE ANY EFFECTS OF THE SAMPLING PROCEDURE ON NORMAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMBRYOS. THIS SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE WILL ENABLE THE DEVELOPMENT OF DETECTION DEVICES THAT CAN OPERATE AT THE SPEED AND ACCURACY NEEDED TO USE IN THE INDUSTRY. WITH FUTURE ADOPTION OF THIS TECHNOLOGY, THE EGG INDUSTRY WILL BE ABLE TO AVOID HATCHING AND THEN KILLING THE DAY-OLD MALE CHICKS OF EGG-TYPE CHICKENS. THEREFORE, THE PROJECT'S RESULTS WILL ALLEVIATE A MAJOR ANIMAL WELFARE ISSUE AND WILL ALSO MAKE THE EGG INDUSTRY MORE ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE.