Our all-natural formula affects the process of sexual differentiation in chicken embryos, from genetically female chicks to phenotypically male ones. Sex reversal is a natural phenomenon that can happen in Reptilia, fish and amphibia through temperature alone. In birds, sex reversal is rarer but has also been documented in natural conditions and can also be affected through human intervention. The sex of birds is chromosomally based and determined by the inheritance of sex chromosomes, ZZ in males and ZW in females. In chickens, sex determination takes place only after day six of embryonic development, in which time gonads (early sexual organs) start to differentiate to ovaries or testes according to the chromosomal blueprint of the gametes. Until then, the gonads are “bi-potential”, meaning they can differentiate into either testes or ovaries regardless of genome status.

Ovo’s technology inhibits the P450-aromatase enzyme, which is the terminal estrogen-synthesizing enzyme. By inhibiting this enzyme, the animal’s gonads develop as testes in place of an ovary, leading to an animal that is phenotypically male, regardless of its genetics. These phenotypic male chicks gain weight and grow exactly like genotypic ones. Previous attempts to do so by other companies included the use of hormones or drugs. However, we at Ovo have discovered and patented an all-natural, plant-based formula which serves as an aromatase inhibitor. Our formula consists of materials which have been proven to be able to change the female phenotype to a male henotype. that do not affect the normal development of the embryo.