Norway will phase out chick culling entirely
Norway (national policy, per Mercy For Animals reporting)
Plant-Based & Vegan Active Updated Sep 19, 2026
Ending the killing of male chicks
Where it stands as of Sep 19, 2026
In-ovo sexing is running commercially in the United States and Brazil, and Canada has developed methods that can determine sex as early as day four of incubation. Norway adopted the technology in 2023 and has committed to ending chick culling entirely by July 2027, Switzerland began its own transition in 2025, and Germany and France have already banned culling outright. It is not yet clear whether larger egg-producing countries like the US and Brazil will commit to a phase-out timeline of their own rather than only
The story so far
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Sep 19, 2026 Latest
Mercy For Animals reported that Norway adopted in-ovo chick sexing in 2023 and has committed to phasing out chick culling entirely by July 2027, that Switzerland began its own transition to the technology in 2025, and that more than 70 percent of surveyed US consumers said the industry should find an alternative to killing day-old male chicks.
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Sep 18, 2026
Mercy For Animals reported that in-ovo sexing technology, which identifies a chick embryo's sex before hatching, is already running commercially in the United States and Brazil, while Canada has developed methods that can determine sex as early as day four of incubation. Germany and France have already banned chick culling outright.
On the record
The checkable promises in this story, dated the day they were made. A promise is marked kept, slipped or partly met only when a later report says so; past its own date with no report, it reads "no word", which is what silence honestly is.
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