| abstract |
Disclosed herein is a method of automated noninvasive determining the sex of an embryo of a bird's egg (14) as well as a corresponding apparatus. The method comprises the following steps: conveying a plurality of bird eggs (14) sequentially or in parallel into an NMR apparatus (18), subjecting the bird eggs (14) to an NMR measurement, to thereby determine, for each of said eggs (14), one or more NMR parameters associated with the egg (14) selected from the group consisting of a Ti relaxation time, a T2 relaxation time and a diffusion coefficient, forwarding said one or more NMR parameters, or parameters derived therefrom, to a classification module (38), said classification module (38) configured for determining, based on said one or more NMR parameters or parameters derived therefrom, a prediction of the sex of the embryo of the associated egg (14), and conveying said plurality of bird eggs (14) out of said NMR apparatus (18) and sorting the eggs (14) according to the sex prediction provided by said classification module (38). |