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By Wilfred Pilo
KUCHING, Sept 23: Have you ever come across chicks that are the colours of the rainbow?
If you are curious, come down to the Sarawak Agrofest 2023 livestock section at Dataran Perayaan Petra Jaya, which is ongoing until October 1.
The veterinary staff on duty at the festival, when interviewed by DayakDaily, revealed that edible food colouring was used to produce the chicks’ vibrant colours.
“The dye will stay on them for about seven days before they grow into their natural colour,” said the staff.
According to the staff, the chick must come from a species known as ‘white broiler’, or such a transformation would not have happened.
He explained that edible food dye was injected via a syringe to incubated eggs that have healthy embryos.
“The process is to puncture a tiny hole into the healthy egg and insert the dye via syringe just outside this embryo.
“We then seal the punctured hole with wax so when the egg hatches, the chick will come out with coloured fur,” he said.
He explained that the colouring of the chicks is used by the laboratory for scientific identification purposes and during research, adding that it is not harmful to the chicks.
“We also want to make visitors curious and attract their attention,” he said. — DayakDaily
